Study of Putti

An extraordinarily gifted draftsman, Annibale Carracci was the youngest and most successful Member of the famous Carracci workshop. An early biographer remarked that every movement, gesture, and act compelled the Carracci to draw. Whether walking about, talking, drinking, or eating, “they would sketch, with bread in one hand and a pencil or charcoal in the other.”

The large putto in this study, his left arm pulling on drapery, may represent a discarded idea for the baby frolicking in the bed curtains in Annibale’s painting Sleeping Venus. The artist probably drew him in a matter of minutes, firmly modeling his chubby form, subtly foreshortening his pose (as seen from below), and giving the figure a quiet, childlike movement. The two lightly scribbled infants, likely sketched in just seconds, capture Annibale’s first, searching thoughts for two other infants.