Putto

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Putto

Putti redirects here, For the town in Uganda, see Putti, Uganda
Putti, Uganda

Putti is a village in the Pallisa District of Uganda. Putti is inhabited entirely by the Abayudaya people. The villagers of Putti are currently seeking an Orthodox Jewish giur or conversion to Judaism....
.

The putto (pl. putti) is a figure of a pudgy human baby, almost always male, often naked and having wings, found especially in Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe....
art. The figure derives from Ancient art but was "rediscovered" in the early Quattrocento
Quattrocento

The cultural and artistic events of 15th century Italy are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento . Quattrocento encompasses the artistic styles of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance....
.

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Putti redirects here, For the town in Uganda, see Putti, Uganda
Putti, Uganda

Putti is a village in the Pallisa District of Uganda. Putti is inhabited entirely by the Abayudaya people. The villagers of Putti are currently seeking an Orthodox Jewish giur or conversion to Judaism....
.

The putto (pl. putti) is a figure of a pudgy human baby, almost always male, often naked and having wings, found especially in Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe....
art. The figure derives from Ancient art but was "rediscovered" in the early Quattrocento
Quattrocento

The cultural and artistic events of 15th century Italy are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento . Quattrocento encompasses the artistic styles of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance....
. These images are frequently, and erroneously, confused with cherub
Cherub

A cherub is a form of angel mentioned several times in the Bible.Cherubs are described as winged beings. The biblical prophet Ezekiel describes the cherubim as a tetrad of living creatures, each having four faces: of a lion, an ox, an eagle, and a man....
im.

Etymology
The word putto is Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
singular
Grammatical number

In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
male; the plural is putti. The female is putta but is not used since today is the short for puttana ("slut
Slut

Slut or slattern is a pejorative term for a person who is deemed sexually promiscuity. The term is generally applied to women and used as an insult or offensive term of disparagement, meaning "dirty or slovenly." It may also be used as an expression of pride in one's status, or to express envy at the sexual successes of others....
", "whore"); this derogatory significance is retained in the closely-related Spanish vulgarity, "puta".)

In early modern Italian, the word simply meant "child"; today it is used only in this specific meaning.

In descriptions of art, some of the first known references to the word are in Vasari (Lives of the Artists, 1550/68).

It seems to have developed its application as a specific term in art history
Art history

Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e.genre, design, format, and look.This includes the "major" arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as the "minor" arts of ceramics, furniture, and other decorative objects....
only during the modern period.

Visual History

Revival of putto in the Renaissance

Putti are a classical motif found primarily on child sarcophagi
Sarcophagus

A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek language sa?? sarx meaning "flesh", and fa?e?? phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos the word came to refer to the limestone t...
of the 2nd century, where they are depicted fighting, dancing
Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to Motion of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of Emotional expression, social social interaction or presented in a spirituality or performance setting....
, participating in bacchic rites
Dionysian Mysteries

The Dionysian Mysteries probably began as an ancient initiation society, or family of similar societies, centred on a primeval nature god , apparently associated with horned animals, serpents and solitary predators , later known to the Greeks in the eclectic figure of Dionysus....
, playing sport
Sport

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of regulation of sport or traditions and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome , but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports and motor...
s, etc.

The revival of the figure of the putto is generally attributed to Donatello
Donatello

Donatello was a famous early Renaissance Italy artist and sculpture from Florence. He is, in part, known for his work in bas-relief, a form of shallow relief sculpture that, in Donatello's case, incorporated significant 15th-century developments in perspectival illusionism....
, in Florence
Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
in the 1420s, although there are some earlier manifestations (for example the tomb
Tomb

For the New York prison see The Tombs.A tomb is a repository for the remains of the death. The term generally refers to any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes....
of Illaria del Carretta in Lucca
Lucca

Lucca is a city in Tuscany, northern central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca....
).

Where to find putti

Putti, cupid
Cupid

In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of eroticism love and beauty. He is also known by another one of his Latin names, Amor . He is the son of goddess Aphrodite....
s and angels (see below) can be found in both religious and secular art from the 1420s in Italy, the turn of the 16th century in the Netherlands
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
and Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, the Mannerist
Mannerism

Mannerism is a Art periods of European art which emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but continued into the seventeenth century throughout much of Europe....
period and late Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
in France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, and all over Baroque
Baroque

In the the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural Epoch , starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in Baroque sculpture, Baroque painting, literature, Baroque dance, and Baroque music....
ceilings. It would be too long to list all the artists, but the best known are Donatello
Donatello

Donatello was a famous early Renaissance Italy artist and sculpture from Florence. He is, in part, known for his work in bas-relief, a form of shallow relief sculpture that, in Donatello's case, incorporated significant 15th-century developments in perspectival illusionism....
and Raphael
Raphael

Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone was an Italy Painting and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings....
(with Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano

Giulio Romano was an Italy Painting and Architecture. A prominent pupil of Raffaello Santi, his stylistic deviations from high Renaissance classicism help define the 16th-century style known as Mannerism....
and Giovanni da Udine
Giovanni da Udine

Giovanni Nanni, also Giovanni de' Ricamatori, better known as Giovanni da Udine , was an Italy painter and architect born in Udine. He should not be confused with Martino da Udine, otherwise known as Pellegrino da San Daniele ....
), and all their followers.

They also experienced a major revival in the 19th century, where they gamboled over paintings from French academic painters, to Gustave Doré
Gustave Doré

Paul Gustave Dor? was a France artist, engraver, illustrator and sculpture. Dor? worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving....
’s illustrations to Orlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso

Orlando Furioso is an Italian literature romance epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532....
, to advertisements.

In the twentieth century, they appeared in Walt Disney
Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney was a multiple Academy Award-winning American film producer, film director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur and philanthropist....
's Fantasia
Fantasia (film)

Fantasia is a 1940 in film List of animated feature-length films produced by Walt Disney, and is the third film in the List of Disney theatrical animated features#official canon....
.

Iconography of putto

The iconography of putti is deliberately unfixed. It is hard to tell the difference between putti, cupids and angels. They have no specific attributes, but can take on the attributes of numerous other figures. As such, putti can take on lots of meanings.

Some of the more common ones are
associations with Aphrodite
Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the classical Greek mythology goddess of love, sex, and beauty. According to Greek oral poet Hesiod, she was born when Uranus was castrated by his son Cronus....
, and so with romantic – or erotic – love
associations with Heaven
associations with peace, prosperity, mirth and leisure

Historiography

The historiography
Historiography

Historiography is the aspect of semiotics that is the study of how knowledge of the past, recent or distant, is obtained and transmitted. Broadly speaking, historiography examines the writing of history and the use of historical methods, drawing upon such elements such as authorship, sourcing, interpretation, style, bias, and audience....
of this subject matter is very short. Many important and famous art historians have commented on the importance of the figure of the putto in art but few have taken up a major study.

The only scholarly book with putti in the title is: Charles Dempsey Inventing the Renaissance Putto (University of North Carolina Press, 2001).
Gallery

See also

Sacred-profane dichotomy
Sacred-profane dichotomy

France sociologist ?mile Durkheim considered the dichotomy between the Sacred and the profane to be the central characteristic of religion: "religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden." In Durkheim's theory, the sacred represented the interests of the group, e...