putto

Example Sentences

• "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."
• "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."