Arguably the most striking indication of this preoccupation with the depiction of flesh in sculpture is the rapid change of the marble putto, or playful infant, in the first decades of the seventeenth century; a change that again is echoed in the literary production of the time.39 In an exceptional passage of his La carta del
navegar pittoresco, Boschini situates his discourse in Rome, describing a (without a
36 Preimesberger 1985, pp. 2-4.
37 Cf. Benedetto Varchi in Varchi & Borghini/Barocchi 1998, p. 36: ‘Fanno [i pittori] ancora
fuochi, lumi, aria, fumi, fiati, nugoli, riverberi et altre infinite apparenze, come sarebbe l’apparire del sole, l’aurora, la notte, i colori dell’acque, le piume degli uccelli, i capelli e peli dell’uomo e di tutti gli animali, sudore, spume et altre cose, che non possono fare gli scultori.’
38 Cf. Fabretti & Fabretti 2007, p. 350.
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doubt fictional) dialogue between the sculptor Alessandro Algardi and the painter Ermanno Strioffi:
What did Algardi say to Don Ermanno in praise of Titian’s tiny putti […]? He said: those little putti suckle milk
from the Graces, and Nature has given birth to them:
and so, they nurture themselves [se nutrisse] into soft little creatures [morbideti]. And who has ever seen more angelic forms?
Then, stepping away from the dialogue, Boschini continues:
And also Algardi has chosen such a worthy path, that everyone could very well [a bona ciera] say: these are statues of flesh, and not of marble
or if they are marble, it is [marble] made flesh [incarnada].40
As with the passage concerning Van Dyck discussed above, also here Boschini poses Titian as an exemplary painter of flesh. In this case, though, the author singles out the painter’s putti, mothered by both art and nature, and suggest they are the example that brought the sculptor on the right path, enabling him to make his marbles seem like real flesh. Thus, the putto lies here at the basis of Algardi’s sculpted flesh. It is not from Algardi’s mouth, though, but from that of François Duquesnoy that we would expect such words of praise for Titian’s paintings. In fact, Bellori, Passeri, and Boselli all write about how Duquesnoy, accompanied by his friend the painter Nicolas Poussin, sought out the works of Titian in Rome, in particular his Feast of Venus (fig. 61), to study and copy his tender putti.41 It is by this study, combined with that of nature, or so argues
Bellori, that Duquesnoy ‘came to soften the hardness of the marble itself, mak-
40 Boschini/Pallucchini 1966, p. 520 [= p. 485]: ‘C. Ma voi tornar a Roma col discorso. | Cosa
disse l’Algardi a Don Ermano [the painter Ermanno Strioffi] | In laude dei putini de Tician, | Sora un certo parlar, tra lori ocorso? || El disse: quei putini zuzza el late | Dale Gratie; e Natura i portorisse; | Per questo morbideti i se nutrisse. | E chi ha mai visto forme più beate? || E pur l’Algardi ha cusì degna strada, | Che ognun dir poderave a bona ciera: | Quel è statua de carne, e no de piera, | O, se piera la xe, la xe incarnada.’
41 Bellori/Borea 1976, p. 289: ‘…ch’egli si applicò tutto a studiare li putti di Tiziano, con occa-
sione che nel Giardino Ludovisi vi era il celebre quadro de gli Amori che giuocando si tirano pomi, donato dopo al re di Spagna.’ Cf. ibid., p. 427. Passeri/Hess 1934, pp. 105-106. See Co- lantuono 1989. The british traveler Richard Symonds writes in his notes on a ‘discourse’ with Poussin, published by Beal 1984, p. 144, that Duquesnoy ‘gott his good manner for boyes’ from two puttini accompanying a antique river god in the Belvedere; the putti of Bernini, he adds, ‘have […] swolne thighes,’ i.e., swolen thighes.
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ing it seem to be of milk rather than hard stone.’42 A similar conflation of the
milk white skin, echoing the whiteness of the marble, and the soft flesh of the well-fed child is evoked by again Boschini, who writes—now on Titian’s putti— that they are so ‘vivaciously nurtured with the milk that seeped from Titian’s excellent brushes, that they are more than alive…’43 The milk that feeds the
child, showing the strength to live in the child’s chubby health, seeps from the brushes as the milky white of the painted flesh.44 In the words of Scaramuccia,
now again on Duquesnoy’s putti: ‘rather of animated flesh they seem, than of hard stone.’45 And finally, even Rubens was sensitive to the sculptor’s ability to
give his work the softness of flesh. On his putti for the Vanden Eynde monu- ment in the Roman Church of Santa Maria dell’Anima (fig. 62) he wrote: ‘it is as if they were sculpted by nature, rather then by art, and [as if] the marble had softened itself [si sia intenerito] into life.’46
The two putti by Duquesnoy refered to by Rubens stand out as the prime example of what Orfeo Boselli, the former’s assistant, has called the putto mod- erno: a type of putto that essentially looks still younger than the putto antico, not the young child as the latter, but almost an infant.47 Informed by Titian, and, it
42 Bellori/Borea 1976, p. 299: ‘Concepì Francesco una idea intorno le forme de’ putti, per lo
studio fatto da Tiziano e dal naturale; se bene egli andò ricercando li più teneri sino nelle fas- cie, tanto che venne ad ammollire la durezza del marmo, sembrando essi più tosto di latte che di macigno.’
43 Boschini/Pallucchini 1966, p. 712: ‘Gli Bambini particolarmente sono così vivamente nutriti
con il latte, che stillava da’ suoi [Tiziano] eccellenti pennelli, che sono più che vivi…’ The conflation of the whiteness of skin and milk is also thematized by Marino/Croce 1913, p. 70, in a pastoral poem, titled ‘Ninfa mungitrice’: ‘Mentre Lidia premea | Dentro rustica coppa | A la lanuta la feconda poppa, | I’ stava a rimirar doppio candore, | Di natura e d’amore; Né distinguer sapea | Il bianco umor da le sue mani intatte, | Ch’altro non discernea che latte in latte.’ Titian was not the only painter that was praised for his depiction of the putto; Malva- sia/Zanotti 1841, p. iii, obviously aiming at a more decisive Bolognese story of art, puts his compatriot Francesco Francia to the fore: ‘Vedete esser [Francesco Francia] anche stato il primo a rappresentare i puttini così graziosamente carnosi, bozzotti [from Bozzoloso, i.e., lum-
py], e polputi [= fleshy, plump] che anco a’nostri tempi non isdegnarono Guido [Reni], e
l’Albano osservarne, e lodarne la pastosa sagoma, ed imitarli.’
44 Milk and flesh are also related in the religious topos of the ‘mammelle di Dio’, cf. Mari-
no/Pozzi 1960, p. 162, n. 27 and Camporesi 1983, pp. 31-32.
45 Scaramuccia 1674, p. 17: ‘Dissero ancore d’altre cose del Fiamengo, & in specie di quei due
putti situati nella Chiesa dell’Anima vicino Piazza Navona, che apunto d’animata Carne più tosto si fanno intendere, che di duro sasso.’
46 Letter from Rubens to Duquesnoy, dated Antwerp, 17 April, 1640 and published in an Italian
translation from the French in Bellori/Borea 1976, p. 302: ‘Io non so come spiegare a V. S. il concetto delle mie obligazioni per li modelli mandatemi e per li gessi delli due putti della in- scrizzione del Van den Eynden nella Chiesa dell’Anima, e molto meno so spiegare le lodi del- la loro bellezza: se li abbia scolpiti più tosto la natura che l’arte e ’l marmo si sia intenerito in vita.’
47 Boselli/Dent Weil 1978, f. 124v: ‘Ma vaglia il vero che li nostri moderni si sono presi licenza
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seems, later also by Rubens, Duquesnoy brought this type of fleshy, tender putto
to perfection.48
The quite considerable changes the sculpted putto went through in the first decades of the seventeenth century can be illustrated by a particularly interest- ing, though equally vexing example. Possibly one of the first to explore the potential of the fleshy putto moderno in marble, was the sculptor of the two putti
crowning the tympanum above the left door of the Barberini chapel (figs. 64- 65) in the Sant’Andrea della Valle. According to a document in the Barberini archives both these as well as the two putti above the opposing door (fig. 63) were commissioned from Pietro Bernini in 1618, while the latter explicitly notes that he will execute them with the help of his son Gian Lorenzo.49 A compari-
son of the two pairs of putti makes immediately clear that we have two very different hands at work. Is this the difference between father and son? If so— there are some convincing arguments in favour of the replacement of two of
the putti by another sculptor at a later date—the young sculptor made a work
that was quite unique at that moment in history.50 Contrary to the agile, cheer-
ful little boys on the right tympanum, who, with an overelaborate torsion of the waist balance somewhat awkwardly on one hip, those on the left have adopted a much more natural pose, nor have their fluttering draperies anything of the convoluted curls with which the other putti are animated. What is more, the
putti on the left side of the chapel (figs. 64-65) differ strongly in their propor-
tions; though somewhat larger as a whole, we can quite easily see that their heads take up a much larger portion of their total length, while arms and legs are rather short and plump in comparison. The faces are fuller, broader with round, puffy cheeks and the stomachs are more fleshy, softer, even sag some- what. Apart from the naturalistic rendering of the flesh, we may also note how the sculptor has staged these putti in a manner which more directly involves the spectator. The putto on the left has his head turned in the direction of the
48 Boselli/Dent Weil 1978, f. 124v argues that Duquesnoy followed Titian: ‘Sopre l’Opere di lui
[i.e. Titian] studiò questa parte [i.e. the putti] Francesco di Quesnoi Fiamengo scultore incom- parabile…’; Wittkower 1958, p. 180 agrues that also Rubens must have influenced the sculp- tor. In fact, Rubens’ influence on northern baroque sculptors is somewhat of a topos, though, as Boudon-Machuel 2005, n. 4 argues, no serious attempt to study this influence has been made. In 1719 the flemish sculptor Gabriel Grupello—the pupil of a pupil of Duquesnoy— would write (as cited in German in Kultermann 1968, p. 31): ‘Ever since my youth, I have tried to follow this great Rubens. And it did not do me any harm.’
49 D’Onofrio 1967, appendix II.10.b; the document is in ASV, Barb. IV.50, 51. For a recent
discussion of these putti see Kessler 2005, cat. C6 (with further literature).
50 Lavin 1968, p. 235 attributes the two putti to Francesco Mochi, Bacchi 1999, p. 74 to Andrea
Bolgi. The two original putti by father and/or son Bernini, could be those mentioned in the
Barberini collection as ‘Due Putti, che erano sul frontespitio della Cappella di papa Urbano’; cf. Lavin 1968, p. 234.
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viewer outside the chapel, while his right hand points towards the altar (the index finger has broken off), thus drawing attention to the altarpiece, while the other putto, as exemplum, has the left hand placed on its chest, and the head turned towards the altarpiece in adoration.
What is the significance of this difference between the putto moderno and the
putto antico? Even though the putto moderno sins against the rules of decorum, for
they seem in fact too young and chubby to perform the acts painters and sculp- tors have them perform, they have the quality of tenerezza, tenderness. Filippo Baldinucci argues that it was tenerezza that Duquesnoy sought after in his depic- tion of the putto, ‘searching out the most tender [teneri] up until the swaddles, observing minutely their tenderness [tenerezza], not only in their shape, but also in their actions, movements, and attitudes…’51 In its tenderness of age and
flesh, the tizianesque putto embodies the concept of tenderness, the sweet inno- cence of the child, further stressed by its playful, capricious behaviour.52 And
what is more, as such they should elicit tenderness in the beholder. Now even if it may seem evident that young children and babies can indeed elicit such feel- ings of tenderness, we may note that some do this better than others. The fa- mous ethologist Konrad Lorenz has determined a set of characteristics, the so- called Kindchenschema, that are perceived as ‘cute’. These include: a large head in proportion to the body, a high, protruding forehead, large eyes below the mid- line of the head, round, protruding cheeks, a rounded body shape, and a soft, elastic body surface.53 Such cute figures, as it turns out, draw our attention
51 Baldinucci 1728, pp. 285-286: ‘…egli fu per certo un artefice singolarissimo, in quanto appar-
tiene particolarmente alla bella idea, che egli si formò nell’esprimere le forme de’ putti, per lo grande studio fatto da quei di Tiziano e dal naturale stesso, ricercando i più teneri sino nelle fascie; osservando minutamente essa tenerezza, non pure nelle forme loro, ma eziandio negli atti, ne’ moti e nelle attitudini, non punto ammanierati, non troppo gonfi o estenuati (vizio, nel quale hanno dato bene spesso, tanto in pittura quanto in rilievo, i maggiori uomini, che abbiano avuti queste belle arti) tantochè possa dirsi di lui, che egli sia stato capo e maestro di una nuova e perfettissima scuola a tutto il mondo.’ This passage is not fully in Baldinuc- ci/Ranalli & Barocchi 1975, vol. 4, p. 677 where the sentence ends at ‘…sino nelle fascie.’ Baldinucci follows here closely the argument of Bellori/Borea 1976, p. 299; cf. Paola Baroc- chi in Baldinucci/Ranalli & Barocchi 1975, vol. 6, p. 49.
52 Colantuono 1989.
53 Lorenz 1943, p. 274: ‘Wie bei allen angeborenen Schematen des Menschen […] ist auch beim
Kindchenschema das Ansprechen mit ganz bestimmten, autonomen und unvergleichbaren Gefühlen und Affekten verbunden, mit einem durchaus spezifischen Erlebnis, dessen Quali- tät im Deutschen meist mit “niedlich”, “süß”, am eindeutigsten im Süddeutschen mit “her- zig” wiedergegeben wird. Der letztgenannte Ausdruck stammt sicher unmittelbar von der durch das Schema ausgelösten echten Instinktbewegung des Auf-den-Arm-Nehmens (Ans- Herz-Drücken, herzen), das meine ältere Tochter im Alter von anderthalb Jahren ihrer ersten Puppe gegenüber mit einer Ausgeschliffenheit und Erfolgsicherheit ausführte, wie wer sie sonst in erstmaliger Ausführung nur bei Instinktbewegungen von Tieren zu sehen gewohnt sind.’ p. 275, lists the following: ‘1. Verhältnismäßig dicker, großer Kopf […] 2. Im Verhält-
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more readily than others, and more readily motivate caretaking behaviour.54
This caretaking behaviour, in its turn, quite obviously involves touching; in fact, a host of studies has shown the importance of physical contact, and more spe- cifically ‘tender touch’ for a healthy mother and child relation and the child’s normal physical and psychological development.55 The infant’s world is fully
determined by the mother’s care-taking, where, even when mother and child are not actually touching, they are always within reach. Developmental psy- chologist Francine Wynn characterises this intricate relation as follows:
In the early phase of the newborn’s life, a mother engages in a symphony of bodily gestures, movements, and perceptions that ‘facilitate’ and overlap with the rever- berations and initiations of those movements, affects, and perceptions of her infant. This results in a circling interchange of rocking/being rocked, humming/cooing, feeling/being felt, touching/being touched, seeing/being seen, inspiration/expira- tion, exciting/calming etcetera, each echoing and mirroring the other.56
This relationship is deeply inscribed in our genetic makeup, and as easily flows over to dolls, and works of art.57 One seventeenth-century account relates of a
nun fondling a small statue of the Christ child, only to find it ‘to appear to be flesh, and warm,’ further inciting her to ‘give caresses to the face with great love.’58 Evidently, some babies are more cute than others, and we can easily see
nis zum Gesichtsschädel stark überwiegender, mit gewölbter Stirn vorspringender Hirnschä- del. 3. Großes und in Übereinstimmung mit der vorerwähnten Proportionierung tief, bis un- ter der Mitte des Gesamtschädels liegendes Auge. 4. Verhältnismäßig kurze, dicke und dickpfotige Extremitäten. 5. Allgemein rundliche Körperformen. 6. Eine ganz bestimmte, der Fettschicht des gesunden Menschenkindchens entsprechende, weich-elastische Oberflächen- beschaffenheit. 7. Runde, vorspringende “Pausbacken”, mangels derer sich die Niedlichkeit des Kindchenkopfes stark verringert. […] Alle Lebewesen, ja selbst alle unbelegte Attrappen, die mehrere der erwähnten Merkmale zeigen, wirken “herzig”, und zwar in einer geradezu erstaunlichen Einhelligkeit bei den verschiedensten Menschen.’ Lorenz has, as he himself in- dicates, deviced his Kindchenschema ‘rein selbstbeobachtend’; more recent research has confir- med his findings, though.
54 Glocker et al. 2009a, 2009b; Brosch, Sander & Scherer 2007.
55 See for a recent discussion Jean, Stack & Fogel 2009.
56 Wynn 1997, p. 259.
57 Gell 1998, p. 18 writes: ‘From dolls to idols is but a short step, and from idols to sculptures
by Michelangelo another, hardly longer.’
58 Maggio 1673, p. 88 (from the life of Madre D. Orsola Benincasa): ‘…hebbe però altri Bam-
bini [other than the ‘piccola Statua di Giesù Bambino’ mentioned earlier in the text] la nostra Madre. Di uno die questi, che oggi nella Congregation si conserva, la M. D. Anna Battinelli nella Vita di D. Anna Palmieri, scrive così: Stando Anna al servigio della M. una sera, non uscendo subito ella dall’Oratorio, mossa da santo zelo l’affrettava con troppa sollecitudine. Onde la Madre sorridendo: le disse: Questo Bambino, al quale io hò fatt’oratione, oggi mi hà fatta una gran predica. E subito Anna an- dò à fargli carezze, e lo trovò come divenuto di carne, e caldo, sì che con grande amore gli accarezzava la fac- cia. E andò poi à trovar la M. Orsola, e le raccontò quanto l’era avvenuto. E dopò il Santo Bambino fè in- tendere alla M. Orsola, che Anna teneva le mani aspre, e che quando gli faceua carezze, gli recava un poco di
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how the development towards the putto moderno is an optimalization of what we may call the ‘cuteness-factor’; indeed, as the comparison between the putti in the Barberini chapel indicates, all of the factors lined out by Lorenz are more prominently put to the fore.59 This implies that the putto moderno more readily
invites touch. The putto then, more than only the personification of tenderness, literally embodies it. The concetto goes beyond a cognitive association and hooks directly up to the spectator’s emotional response.