> What is the significance of cherubs in high
> renaissance art (especially Raphael)? Why are they
> depicted as naked infants?
Whatever their exact significance, they represent, as with so much
else at that time, the revival of "Classical" practice -- which as is
more usually the case than is often acknowledged, means both Late
Antiquity and the partially overlapping Early Christian era. Naked
winged putti can be found frolicing among grape vines, etc. in Roman
works, particularly in association with Bacchic worship. They became
well established, as well, in Christian art, particularly in a
funerary context, which quite commonly appropriated non-Christian
motifs. Thus, in the 3rd-century Roman catacomb paintings and in the
4th-century Mausoleum of Constantine's daughter Constantia (now the
Church of S. Costanza), in both the vault mosaics and on her porphyry
sarcophagus, naked winged putti can be found. How the "putto" was
transformed into the "cherub" I know not, but cherubim, often crowded
together almost to the extent of forming a background pattern to
various biblical scenes and devotional subjects, can be found in
European art all through the 15th century and back into the late 14th
in the work, particularly, of Jacquemart de Hesdin. My suspicion is
that this might represent the transference of an originally Byzantine
motif, in which cherubim filled Christ's mandorla in scenes such as
the Koimesis, or Dormition of the Virgin.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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