Study of a Putto

Antonio Correggio

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Correggio. The drawing is in red chalk, and is of a naked infant boy. His back is arched and his left arm is thrown over his right shoulder. He has a chubby face which is looking out from over his arm. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "7. CORREGGIO (ANTONIO ALLEGRI) (b. about 1494; d. 1534) STUDY OF A PUTTO Collection of Henry Oppenheimer, Esq. From the Lawrence and Heseltine Collections. Red chalk. 18 x 10.5 cm. (7 1/16 x 4 1/8 in.). The attitude, gesture, and upward look of the boy suggest that this delightful drawing was intended as a study for a religious picture; one of those compositions of ecstatic and adoring figures round whose knees such naked children as this are made to nestle, supporting the hem of a saint's garment (as here perhaps), or making believe to buoy up a floating form upon a cloud, with a child's charming eagerness to enter into the appropriate solemnity of the scene. We may connect this study, therefore, with the putti of the cupola of S. Giovanni Evangelista at Parma rather than with those more sturdily engaged and pagan groups which fill the ovals in the enchanting ceiling at the Camera di San Paolo. L. B."