Putto op de rug van een zeemonster 1517 - 1562

Marco Dente made this engraving of a putto riding a sea monster in Italy, sometime in the first third of the 16th century. In Renaissance art, putti, or cherubic infant figures, are associated with religious themes or with classical antiquity. Here, the setting is framed as an architectural relief, giving the image a sculptural quality. The sea monster itself is interesting. It is clearly not observed from life but draws on images of hybrid creatures found in ancient Roman art, such as mosaics and reliefs. These images often have a decorative function. Dente would have known these through collections of antiquities and drawings of ancient artworks. Engravings like this one were often made to be collected in albums. They document ancient art and make it accessible to collectors and other artists. As historians, we need to look into these collecting practices, where we can study inventories of collections, artists’ notebooks, and the writings of art theorists to understand this image better. We begin to see how art is a product of social and institutional settings.