putto — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A representation, especially in Renaissance or Baroque art, of a small, naked, often winged (usually male) child; a cherub.

   Narrower terms

   amorettoamorinocupid

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   There is in the porch of the present church a tablet to Luke Flood (died 1818) which has much the appearance of having been made up of portions of earlier monuments. It is surmounted by a bas-relief of a winged boy holding an inverted torch. But not only is he a baby putto, not a youth, and without an urn, but the style and execution scarcely seem worthy of [Thomas] Banks even when not at his best.

   The Carmelite scapulars held by the putto and young male saint on the right indicate that the altarpiece was intended for a church of the Carmelite order.

   A second putto with a gallows in its hand cries at the judge's feet.

   More examples (5)

   In The Youth of Bacchus (illus. 51) [by Nicolas Poussin], a painting produced before 1630, the figures are arranged in a triangle. The young Bacchus is at the top, the putti lying on the ground and the feet of the sitting figures mark the base-line and the lower corner, while the sides are designated by the nymphs and satyrs.

   The picture shows a putto who has just blown bubbles through a clay tube. He holds a scallop shell of soapy water and leans against a skull. [...] In picture and verse the imagery echoes classical and biblical metaphors for the brevity of a man's life. The fresh flower is in contrast to the dying tree like the putto as childhood innocence is opposed by the death's head.

   The walls [of Naples Cathedral] have ranks of white marble niches capped by huge marble scallops, and flanked by urns and flowers, drapes and putti.

   Whatever the case, the evangelical animals are appreciably larger than the puttos of the painting. The animals gaze upward, their mouths gaping. They are cawing, bellowing, roaring out the Gospel. [...] Only the attendant puttos seem to be taking the divine afflatus or descent in stride.

   A Galatea with Triton, 5 puttoes and 5 other figures, painted frame in fake marble and gilded, 12 palmi in height, copy of Raphael made by Caracci.