The Holy Virgin Mary is a mixed media painting created by Chris Ofili in 1996 that utilizes elephant dung and naked imagery. It was one of the works included in the Sensation exhibition in London, Ber
The painting on display behind a protective screen at the Sensation exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1999–2000
A putto is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and very often winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism, the putto came to represent a sort of ba
The Holy Virgin Mary
…many collaged images that resemble butterflies at first sight, but on closer inspection are photographs of female genitalia; an ironic reference to the putti that appear in traditional religious art. A lump of dried, varnished elephant dung forms one bared breast, and the painting is displayed leaning against…
Renaissance putti, detail from the Camera degli Sposi, by Andrea Mantegna, 1465–1474, fresco, Ducal Palace, Mantua, Italy
Three Putti Next to a Cartouche, after François Boucher, 1727–1760, etching and engraving, 26.5 × 21.5 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Roman putti in The Cupid Seller, National Archaeological Museum.
Six Byzantine putti attending to the goddess Hestia, on the Hestia Tapestry, 6th century, tapestry, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.