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Putti of science

You might think of them as angels or cherubs, but the chubby little winged boys which became popular in renaissance painting are also known as putti, and they have their roots in classical antiquity. Since their revival in the 15th century as secular rather than religious figures, they have often taken on the role of illustrating science and scientific principles. By turns reverent and cheeky, they even make their way into a safe sex poster of the 1980s.

Words by Danny Birchall

  • In pictures
Black and white photograph showing a putto flying above a snake and a person whose face has been damaged.
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This fragment of decoration from an ancient Greek tomb shows a putto long before Christian imagery of them existed. The presence of a snake and a physician on the same fragment might also indicate early associations with healing and scientific knowledge.

Black and white engraving showing a naked woman surrounded by putto playing beside a lion and in the branches of a tree. One putto flies above with a model of a castle on its shoulders.
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Putti have always liked to show things off. In this 17th-century print, a putto carries a building on his head, part of the glorious bounty of art and nature laid before the goddess Cybele.

Historiated initial showing one putto holding a rope by which a dog has been hoisted into a tree by its neck, whilst another pulls on its hind legs and a third beats it with a stick.
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Andreas Vesalius's landmark 16th-century anatomy text ‘De humani corporis fabrica’ set out a vision of the human body based on dissection and observation. At the beginning of each chapter, an illustrated capital letter shows putti carrying out the tasks of anatomy students. In this gruesome example they are killing a stray dog to prepare it for dissection.

Putti hold books labelled "Botanique", "Pharmacie", "[Ch]ymie", "Anatomie". Hygieia stands next to a cock and holds a staff encircled by a snake.
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Putti maintained an ongoing association with classical knowledge. In this 1777 etching, putti attend the Greek goddess Hygieia, goddess of health, who points towards the canon of physicians in the western medical tradition. The names Hippocrates, Galen and Vesalius are still familiar to us today; Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and Gerard van Swieten perhaps less so.

Depicted inside a glass bottle with a crown at the top, a putto pours a phial into a dragon's mouth, pumping a bellows with his other hand.
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As experimentation became more popular, putti moved into a more active role in illustrations, particularly in alchemy. In this illustration from the 16th-century alchemical manuscript ‘Splendor Solis’, our solitary putto is bravely pouring liquid into the mouth of a dragon. The process represents the chemical fixing of a volatile substance using fire.

Putti undertaking various experiments in an open temple or rotunda, presided over by a woman representing Scientia. Lettering above and below reads "A little learning is a dangerous thing, Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again. Pope. ; Here bright eloquence does always smile, In such a choice yet unaffected style, As doth both knowledge & delight impart, The force of reason with ye flow'rs of art."
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As historian Steven Shapin has noted, putti often stood in for the technicians or servants who actually conducted scientific experiments. This mid-18th century print features putti demonstrating new methods in optics and physics. They illustrate a selection of heroic couplets about art and reason, including the often misquoted line from Alexander Pope's 1711 ‘Essay on Criticism’, “A little learning is a dang'rous thing”.

Putti deprive a bird of air in a vacuum experiment, one plays at billiards, another plays with magnetised keys, while outside a storm rages (all representing physics).
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These putti hard at work suffocating a small bird seem more interested in the dispassionate pursuit of science than in sadistic thrills. Asphyxiating a bird or small mammal in a vacuum pump was a popular 18th-century demonstration of oxygen and animal respiration. Perhaps the most famous illustration of this experiment was painted by Joseph Wright of Derby in 1768.

A group of women representing the continents and the figure of Wisdom stand around a globe. A putto holding a sail and flag points to locations on the globe.
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Scientific knowledge of life and death might ultimately lead to political conquest. Here, a more passive putto holds a ship’s mast as a symbol of seafaring as Wisdom displays the globe to Britannia. The broken tusks at the bottom of the picture, perhaps unwittingly, show the contempt with which Britain would treat the rest of the world and its resources.

Illustration showing four winged figures floating against a blue sky above lettering saying "Himlen må vente" (translates as "Heaven must wait").
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Children’s bodies might seem out of place in a safe sex advertisement, but putti take centre stage in this 1988 AIDS poster from Denmark. The text reads “Himlen må vente”, which means “Heaven can wait”, and the putti are reminiscent of the cherubs in Francois Boucher’s rococo putti paintings. Even in the late 20th century, putti as a secular motif could point towards beating disease through their long association with scientific knowledge.

About the author

Danny Birchall

Danny is Wellcome Collection's Digital Content Manager.