The putto (often portrayed as a mischievous baby) appears frequently in the art and literature of Renaissance Italy. The ""spiritelli"" embody a minor species of demon, neither good nor bad. This book discusses the manifestations of the putto-spiritello in 15th-century art and literature. It offers parallel interpretations of two works: Botticelli's ""Mars and Venus"", a painting in which infant Satyr-putti appear as the panic-inducing spirits of the nightmare, and Politian's ""Stanze"", a poem in which masked cupids appear to the hero in a deceiving dream. The text concludes with an examination of the functions of such masks in the poetry and public masquerades sponsored by Lorenzo de'Medici and in Michelangelo's scheme for the decoration of the Medici Chapel.
- ISBN13 9780807826164
- Publish Date 25 June 2001
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 14 March 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint The University of North Carolina Press
- Edition New edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 312
- Language English