The Dead Christ Supported by An Angel with Two Putti Each Supporting a Cero

Putti are not angels

This is the only title among the 224 in this catalogue that uses the word putti, and it uses it in the one way that makes the distinction legible: an angel supports the body, and two putti do something else. A putto is a winged infant type inherited from classical art and absorbed into Christian painting as decoration. It has no rank, no name, no office and no place in the celestial hierarchy — it is a figure of ornament that happens to have wings.

What the record holds

The catalogue dates the work to 1575 and gives Palma il Giovane, a Italian painter, with Mannerism Late Renaissance as the style term. No dimensions are recorded. The measured colour family is brown. No location is recorded.

One angel, with a job

The angel in this title has a function that recurs across the catalogue: supporting the dead Christ. Six titles here name the dead Christ, and the supporting angel appears in several of them, sometimes singly and sometimes as a pair. The cero named in the title is a large votive candle. Neither dimensions nor a location is recorded, and the style term on file is Mannerism Late Renaissance.