Putti spelend onder een baldakijn 1670 - 1697

Paul van Somer the Younger created this print, Putti Playing Under a Baldachin, sometime between 1669 and 1704 using etching. Looking at the image, it’s hard not to wonder about the social meaning of these playful putti, or cherubic children. We can see that the image has been organized to create meaning through cultural reference. The putti are enjoying a bacchanal, a wild and ecstatic festival of the Roman god Bacchus. Produced in the Netherlands, this print participates in a long history of Dutch artists looking to classical antiquity for inspiration, particularly the Italian Renaissance. Consider what the baldachin means as an architectural structure, derived from the canopies above the altars of important Catholic churches in Rome. The putti offer a vision of uninhibited freedom; however, such freedom would have been unavailable to the working class. Historical research into the artist's patrons would reveal a great deal about the artist's role within the art world.