Hello everyone and welcome back! It’s February, love is in the air, teddy bear and flower sales are skyrocketing, chocolates are overpriced, and cherubs are plastered onto everything imaginable! Or are they putti? Are they not the same thing?
Well let me tell you! In modern terminology, putti and cherubs are interchangeable and chances are that if you say putti, people might look at you a little funny. So what’s the difference between cherubs and putti? The cherubs that we are familiar with today are winged celestial beings, often depicted as chubby little children that we also sometimes call cupids depending on preference. However, cherubs historically are not very cute and are pretty horrifying.
Originally, they were defined as supernatural beings with four heads: a human, a lion, an ox, and an eagle with straight legs and hooved feet. Their main purpose was to guard the Garden of Eden so as you can imagine, babies with wings would most likely not make very good guardians. I don’t know about all of you though, but I think that traditional cherubs would make quite the Valentine’s Day card.
And if you’re yelling at me through the screen, yes technically cupids are different from cherubs too. The child of Venus and Mars, cupid and his Greek counterpart Eros are associated with love, however once again they are not depicted as babies. They were depicted as slender young boys, but everything changed during the Hellenistic period when Cupid was morphed into a bow and arrow wielding infant.
Unlike Cupid and cherubs, Putti, or putto if there is only one, is actually a baby and has always been a baby. They are sometimes depicted as winged children but not always and are usually male infants. They do appear in various forms of art; however, they are often seen serving or hovering around gods or goddesses. Now if you are thinking that they are all still the same thing I really can’t argue with you all because at the end of the day, we all know them as fat little babies that somehow have strong enough motor skills to fly around.
So next time you see cherub or Cupid in a listing, you can flex your new knowledge and determine if it’s really a putto! Using reasonable deducing skills, all you have to do is make sure it doesn’t have four heads and isn’t brandishing a dangerous weapon. So, enjoy Valentine’s Day with that special someone, but look forward to February 15th for discounted candy!
