PUTTO (singular) / PUTTI (plural) DEFINITION
(Term used in subsequent pages)
Art History, Stokstad, Revised Edition, 1999, Vol. 1, “Glossary 11 | putto (putti)”:
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/content?contentName=GL_Putto (or http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/server.php?show=conGlossary.319), “Glossary Term: Putto”:
Glossary Term: Putto
Putto (plural, putti) are winged infants who either play the role of angelic spirits in religious works, or act as instruments of profane love. They are often shown as associates of Cupid. They have their origin in Greek and Roman antiquity (the latin word putus means little man).
Isn’t that a good example of a contradiction? Again, it’s not that Eros or erotic love is “profane,” it’s that someone later made it profane; but, it remained in art.
Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, Mike Dixon-Kennedy, 1998, p. 126, “Eros”:
The Invisible Made Visible: Angels from the Vatican, Duston / Nesselrath, 1998, p. 311, “Glossary | Cupid”:
“Eros”:
P. 313, “putto”:
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language (Unabridged), 1986, p. 1850, “putto”:
Webster’s Universal Dictionary of the English Language (unabridged), 1909, p. 1345, “putti”:
Greek & Roman Mythology, Translated by Elizabeth Burr, 1994, p. 106, “Eros”:
(Erotes is a plural form of Eros.)
The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture, 1996, p. 167, “Eros”:
A Chronology of Western Architecture, Yarwood, 1987, p. 220, “Putto”:
Microsoft Encarta Dictionary (paperback), 2002, p. 715, “putto”:
http://www.answers.com/putti, putti:
The putto is a figure of a pudgy baby, almost always male, found especially in Italian Renaissance art. The figure derives from Ancient art but was "rediscovered" in the early Quattrocento.
“Derivation of word”:
The word putto is Italian singular male; the plural is putti. One never speaks of putta, which would be the female version. (The word putta is short for puttana, slut.)
http://www.answers.com/topic/putto, “putto”:
[Italian, boy, from Vulgar Latin *puttus, from Latin putus.]