Putti in the Clouds
1601
chalk
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
1601
chalk
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Putti in the Clouds is a 1601 chalk by Italian 17th - 18th century, a Baroque work, depicting Putti, held at National Gallery of Art.
You see two chubby baby angels—putti—floating in a swirl of clouds. Their wings are just quick pen strokes, and their faces are barely more than dots. This sketch was probably a practice sheet for a ceiling fresco. The artist used cross-hatching—tiny crisscrossed lines—to build up shadows and give the clouds depth. It’s loose, almost like a doodle, but it shows how Baroque artists made even quick studies feel alive. The paper still has the faint grid lines from the original sheet, a quiet hint of how these images were planned. Look up more Baroque sketches at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
This artist worked in late 17th- to 18th-century Italy, specializing in bronze reliefs and ink drawings on paper.
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