Putti with a Wine Press

Attributed to Mariotto Albertinelli

National Gallery of Art

Twelve naked, pudgy, little boys gather in, over, and around a wide, open, wooden barrel set in front of a sprawling, tree-like grape vine in this round painting. The boys all have light skin and short, blond hair. The barrel is set on flat, wooden beams. The vine behind it has a twisting brown trunk and the dark green canopy is dotted with purple grapes, and it spreads to fill the rounded top of the composition. The clear sky behind the tree is turquoise blue. One boy wearing a crown of grapes and leaves perches in the tree and looks down at the others. He holds a glass with red liquid in one hand and a thin staff in the other. Of the three boys in the barrel, one drinks from a shallow bowl and another holds up a basket of grapes. The third, in the center, holds a bunch of grapes down over the front edge of the barrel. On the ground around the barrel, one boy to our left holds an elongated, gold cornucopia topped with fruit as he looks toward another child straddling the shoulders of a third. At the front center, a boy kneels and drinks from a cup near one who sleeps, stretched out on the ground, using a pitcher as a pillow. To our right, one boy looks up at the tree and the final two play together around another, smaller barrel. The circular painted panel is surrounded by a gold frame.