Putti on a memorial monument by Thomas Green of Camberwell to Richard Welby (d.1715) in St Andrew's church, Denton.
"two putti are in the process of placing a crown on his head. Crowns were used symbolically to represent victory with, in this case the deceased winning victory over death and moving on to eternal life in heaven. Putti (plural, singular putto) were carvings of naked chubby male children, which sometimes had wings. Two more can be found at either side of the foot of the statue. One holds a human skull on his knee, reminding the onlooker that Man is mortal and will die, memento Mori. remember death! The other is in mourning, head in hands and a single tear rolling down one cheek."
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"A putto (Italian: ['putto]; plural putti ['putti]) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism, the putto came to represent the sacred cherub (plural cherubs) (plural cherubim); and in the Baroque period of art, the putto came to represent the omnipresence of God. A putto representing a cupid is also called an amorino (plural amorini) or amoretto (plural amoretti).
The more commonly found form putti is the plural of the Italian word putto. The Italian word comes from the Latin word putus, meaning "boy" or "child". Today, in Italian, putto means either toddler winged angel or, rarely, toddler boy. It may have been derived from the same Indo-European root as the Sanskrit word "putra" (meaning "boy child", as opposed to "son"), Avestan pu?ra-, Old Persian puça-, Pahlavi (Middle Persian) pus and pusar, all meaning "son", and the New Persian pesar "boy, son".
Putti, in the ancient classical world of art, were winged infants that were believed to influence human lives. In Renaissance art, the form of the putto was derived in various ways including the Greek Eros or Roman Amor/Cupid, the god of love and companion of Aphrodite or Venus; the Roman, genius, a type of guardian spirit; or sometimes the Greek, daemon, a type of messenger spirit, being halfway between the realms of the human and the divine.
The iconography of putti is deliberately unfixed, so that it is difficult to tell the difference between putti, cupids, and various forms of angels. They have no unique, immediately identifiable attributes, so that putti may have many meanings and roles in the context of art.
Some of the more common associations are:
* Associations with Aphrodite, and so with romantic—or erotic—love
* Associations with Heaven
* Associations with peace, prosperity, mirth, and leisure"
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