Pair of 18th Century Italian Gilded Putti

Magnificent pair of 18th-Century Italian gold putti. The style, quality, and workmanship of this pair of winged angels in wood gilded with gold leaf, suggest a noble production  in central Italy, most likely Rome. The gilding is pure gold and it’s in an excellent state of conservation. The work of sculpture is showing mastercraft of modeling of the wings and drapery. The figure of the child, so often found in Renaissance and Baroque works, many times with wings, in the role of the angelic spirit or a messenger of love, dates back to Greek and Roman iconography. The Greek erotes, winged spirit messengers who guide us through our lives, were variations of Eros, the god of love (Cupid). Though in Eros’s first manifestations, he had the features of a young man, by the Hellenistic era, he had become a child or a baby. This form of god later merged with the figure of genius in the Roman religion, a similar guardian spirit who protected a person’s soul throughout his life and led him eventually to heaven. Early Christians adopted this pagan image to represent angels in catacomb paintings and on sarcophagi. The figure of the angel in the Middle Ages took on the features of an adult goddess, the Roman winged Victory. Putti reappeared in Renaissance iconography. Since then, they have figured in sacred subjects as angels — at its most popular during the Counter-Reformation — and in secular subjects as the companions of Cupid, the ubiquitous messenger of love. They were also constant companions to Venus and sometimes appeared alongside the Virtues and Vices.