Six Putti Dancing Around a Globe and a Palm from a set of the Giochi di Putti

Six Putti Dancing Around a Globe and a Palm from a set of the Giochi di Putti

Giovanni da Udine (Giovanni dei Ricamatori)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This tapestry was once part of an eight-piece set representing Giochi di Putti, or Cherubs’ Games. Pope Leo X commissioned the series as an allegorical celebration of the golden age under the Medici, and it was to be displayed in the Vatican’s Hall of the Consistory. Probably conceived by Raphael, the tapestries’ designs were executed by his pupils, including Giovanni da Udine. Tommaso Vincidor painted their cartoons (the full-size models copied by the weavers) in Brussels. Unfortunately, Leo’s Brussels-woven, sixteenth-century tapestry set does not survive, but multiple copies were made, including these seventeenth-century tapestries attributed to Flemish weavers working in Rome in the newly established tapestry workshop funded by the Barberini family. Here, the weavers used hatching to skillfully depict the volume and rosy hues of the putti’s flesh. A glorious range of dyes captures the abundance of fruit, vegetables, and flowers in the swags suspended behind them. The mustard yellow ground imitates the gilt-silver used in Leo’s lost original.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Six Putti Dancing Around a Globe and a Palm from a set of the Giochi di PuttiSix Putti Dancing Around a Globe and a Palm from a set of the Giochi di PuttiSix Putti Dancing Around a Globe and a Palm from a set of the Giochi di PuttiSix Putti Dancing Around a Globe and a Palm from a set of the Giochi di PuttiSix Putti Dancing Around a Globe and a Palm from a set of the Giochi di Putti

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.