The Mask of Love
Aug. 24th, 2012 01:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyA few weeks ago, my mother's partner made a cauldron for their local primary school's Olympic Games lessons. The other day, the teacher who organised it popped in with a thank-you gift: a huge box of fruit and vegetables, mostly homegrown. Too many for two people to eat, so my mother has brought some in for me: lemons, apples, oranges and half a pineapple (I don't think that was homegrown). I already have some lemons on my own little tree, plus two other people have given me some, so I am swamped with lemons just now. So many lemons. I am thinking: lemon curd, maybe a lemon cake. Any other suggestions?
This week's random word:
17. Putto
I have lived my whole life believing that Cupid, the chubby little winged chap with bow and arrows, was a cherub, and now I learn that he is not. Cherubim are chubby little winged angels. Chubby little winged chaps of a secular nature are putti; Cupid is a putto. In fact, cupids are their own special type of putti, also being called amorini or amoretti*. So you can call Cupid an amorino, an amoretto or a putto, but, whatever you do, don't call him a cherub.
We think of putti and cherubim as winged babies, but they aren't. They are winged little beings that just happen to look like babies. A crucial difference. As the man quoted on Wikipedia says, so many artists have tried to make them not look like babies and simply made them look hideous instead.
I wrote the above paragraphs one morning, and later did the ironing while watching Bargain Hunt, which featured in passing an antique dressing table with a gilt statue on it. The statue was Diana, said the host, with a putto at her feet. Have I been hearing this word my whole life and just not registered it?
* Not to be confused with amaretti. Don't put amoretti in your coffee. They would drown.
Next week: fulgor
This week's random word:
17. Putto
I have lived my whole life believing that Cupid, the chubby little winged chap with bow and arrows, was a cherub, and now I learn that he is not. Cherubim are chubby little winged angels. Chubby little winged chaps of a secular nature are putti; Cupid is a putto. In fact, cupids are their own special type of putti, also being called amorini or amoretti*. So you can call Cupid an amorino, an amoretto or a putto, but, whatever you do, don't call him a cherub.
We think of putti and cherubim as winged babies, but they aren't. They are winged little beings that just happen to look like babies. A crucial difference. As the man quoted on Wikipedia says, so many artists have tried to make them not look like babies and simply made them look hideous instead.
I wrote the above paragraphs one morning, and later did the ironing while watching Bargain Hunt, which featured in passing an antique dressing table with a gilt statue on it. The statue was Diana, said the host, with a putto at her feet. Have I been hearing this word my whole life and just not registered it?
* Not to be confused with amaretti. Don't put amoretti in your coffee. They would drown.
Next week: fulgor