ABSTRACT
The putto-and-skull motif has various layers of significance within an iconographic context. In reading these layers and interpreting their significance, a number of themes are apparent, all of which would have been accessible to the learned élite, and some to the less learned. These would have served to inform the meaning of the putto-and-skull motif. The three themes explored are: death-sleep-birth; putto as soul; Kronos/Chronos/Saturn. A putto is an appropriate iconographic solution to the problem of depicting an infant on a funeral monument. The fact that the putto is asleep suggests the transience of death and the hope of resurrection/rebirth, just as the other mortuary symbols suggest the transience of life. The juxtaposition of skull in close proximity to the face of the putto was especially appealing and full of poignancy at the loss of regenerative potential in the death of one so young.
