Here, emerging from the dark stable (on a Christmas Card), is Carlo Maratta's Madonna and Child. Well, again, it is one of countless versions produced for the Italian devotional market. Here the virgin might be, as often was in his paintings, his illegitimate daughter.
And then there's the putti.
Peering into my Christmas card are three little chaps. Possibly chaps. They cannot be found in the Bible, but they can be found in great numbers on paintings of various kinds. So, with much academic effort devoted to art the meaning of putti must be over documented? No. They have been written about very little apparently, and they are variously little boys, angel thingies, cupid-type thingies or just children.
It's a decent guess that in a Madonna and child scene they are kind of angels, or boys with a heavenly background (if such a thing is possible).
Possible? The mystical decorations are a waste of Carlo's time. In the arms of the virgin is a real baby boy. Yet he is not only a bit heavenly - he is the very centre of heaven's attention. He is not a half heavenling; he is all human and all divine.
The truth is more wonderful than the putti.
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