Two winged putti c. 1512

This red chalk drawing of two winged putti comes to us from Raphael, sometime in the early 16th century. Raphael, positioned in the High Renaissance, was deeply influenced by classical antiquity and humanism, and was a master of form, balance and idealization. Here, the artist's study of the human form shines through the soft lines depicting the two figures, capturing the cherubic and idealized forms which came to be a characteristic motif of renaissance art. The putti were often associated with the divine and the sacred, frequently populating religious paintings and frescoes. Consider Raphael's position in a society where the church was a central power and the stories from the Bible shaped the cultural imagination. How might the cherubic idealization speak to the ways in which innocence and divinity are constructed? How do we still see echoes of this ideal in contemporary representations? This drawing allows us to reflect on the historical construction of beauty and the ongoing dialogue between the sacred and the secular in art.