Angels and Putti

In mourning jewellery, angels and putti are the ciphers of hope - the positive bearers of meaning that, alongside the negative memento mori symbols (skull, scythe, hourglass), complete the imagery of a mourning piece. Where the skull announces death, the angel and the putto show redemption and the survival of the soul. This iconographic function makes both motifs central components of the Christian mourning jewellery tradition from the Baroque to the late nineteenth century.

Theological grounding

Christian angelology has been elaborated since the fourth and fifth centuries. Angels are heavenly messengers of God, ordered in a hierarchy (seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, angels). Two functions above all matter in mourning iconography:

Accompaniment of the soul. Angels accompany the departed soul on its way into the hereafter. This function is especially pronounced in Catholic contexts and finds its iconographic expression in depictions showing an angel receiving the soul at the grave or during its ascent to heaven.

Protection and consolation. Angels protect and console the bereaved. This function is central in Lutheran and Reformed contexts and is often linked to biblical verses (for instance Psalm 91:11 - "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways").

Putti are theologically less clear-cut. In Italian Renaissance and Baroque imagery they are understood as amorini (little gods of love) or as cherubini (little cherubim). In a mourning context three meanings converge:

• The child's soul: the deceased infant or child depicted as a putto - an innocent, weightless, winged soul ascending to paradise
• Allegorical attendant: the putto as companion to an adult deceased, as personified mourning or redemption
• Cupid reference: the putto as a small Eros, in mourning for a beloved or in sentimental mourning for love

Angels in mourning jewellery

Depictions of angels in jewellery follow several iconographic patterns:

Standing angel at the urn. A classic composition. The angel stands or kneels beside a draped urn, often with one hand on the urn and the other pointing to heaven. This arrangement is widespread in Georgian and Biedermeier sentimental jewellery, above all in sepia hair paintings (see Sepia Hair Painting).

Hovering angel bearing the soul. The angel carries a small figure (the soul of the deceased) up to heaven. This composition is frequent in Catholic mourning jewellery and is also used in late Baroque memento mori lockets.

Mourning angel. A kneeling or crouching angel with veiled face and folded hands. A restrained variant, widespread above all in Victorian mourning jewellery and on gravestones.

Angel with a scroll. The angel holds a scroll or tablet bearing an inscription - date of death, initials, a mourning motto. A narrative, functional composition that binds image and inscription together.

Guardian angel above a sleeping child. Found in pieces mourning children. A larger angel watches over a small child, sleeping or lying still. Frequent on nineteenth-century lockets for babies lost in infancy and on their modern counterparts (see Memorial Jewellery for Stillbirth and Infant Loss).

Putti in mourning jewellery

Putti mostly appear in more complex compositions:

Putto at the urn. A standard late Baroque and Georgian composition. One or more putti lean against a draped urn, often with lowered head, folded hands or a willow branch in hand. A sentimental variant of the angel-at-the-urn image.

Putto with a bouquet. A putto offering a bouquet (frequently forget-me-nots or roses) to the wearer or to a depicted person. An iconographic gesture closely related to the hand with flower (see Hand with Flower (Dexiosis and the Flower Gesture)).

Putto on a cloud. A single putto hovering or seated on a cloud - the image of a child's departed soul in paradise. Frequent in pieces mourning children, referring to the unblemished soul of the deceased child.

Two putti as mourners. Two putti in symmetrical arrangement - one carries a willow branch, the other points to heaven; one grieves, the other consoles; one sits by the grave, the other floats heavenwards. This arrangement is widespread in Baroque and late Baroque memento mori jewellery.

Putto as a mourning Cupid. A winged putto with a small bow and arrow, letting the bowstring hang slack in sorrow - the image of grieving love (Cupido victus, "Cupid vanquished"). A specifically Baroque sentimental composition.

Material and technique

Depictions of angels and putti are executed in several techniques:

• Watercolour or gouache on ivory - the finest variant, above all in Georgian and Biedermeier miniature-painting workshops
• Sepia hair painting - using chopped hair as pigment, a specific sentimental jewellery technique (see Sepia Hair Painting)
• Black and white enamel relief on gold - the most frequent industrial variant, above all in Victorian mourning pieces
• Modelled gold or silver figures - in especially elaborate pieces; small three-dimensional angels or putti as the central element
• Engraved line drawing - a plainer variant, often on inner faces or reverses
• Stamped sheet-metal relief - in industrially produced mass-market pieces

Victorian mourning jewellery is dominated by the enamelled variant; Georgian sentimental jewellery by the painted or sepia hair painting variant.

Mourning for children as the principal field of use

The most important application of angel and putto symbolism is mourning for children. In the nineteenth century infant and child mortality was high - in many families one or more children died before the age of ten. Mourning for these children followed an iconography of its own, in which angels and putti were the central bearers of meaning.

Dying or sleeping infant with a guardian angel. A central composition. An infant lies peacefully, often wrapped in a cloud; a guardian angel watches over the child or carries them heavenwards. Frequently with the inscription Asleep in Jesus, In paradisum, Es schläft or Im Himmel ist es schön.

The deceased child depicted as a putto. The dead child is painted as a putto - winged, at peace, risen into paradise. This variant is especially widespread in Catholic southern Germany and Austria, with clear references to the Italian Renaissance and Baroque putto tradition.

Pendants for babies lost before or shortly after birth. For miscarriages, stillbirths and infants who died very early, a jewellery tradition of its own emerged in the nineteenth century - usually small pendants or lockets with an angel or putto motif, often with dates of birth and death. This tradition lives on in modern memorial jewellery for such losses (see Memorial Jewellery for Stillbirth and Infant Loss).

Confessional variants

The use of angels and putti follows clear confessional lines:

Catholic (southern Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, the Irish and French diasporas):

• Rich angel iconography, often combined with images of the Virgin and figures of saints
• Putto depictions as an Italian Baroque inheritance
• Frequent use in mourning rosaries, cross pendants and lockets mourning children
• Latin inscriptions (In paradisum, Requiescat in pace)

Protestant (northern Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, England):

• More restrained angel iconography, often with inscriptions of biblical verses
• Putto depictions rarer, being felt as too Italian-Catholic
• More frequent use of the mourning angel instead of the hovering soul-bearing angel
• German or English inscriptions from the New Testament

Jewish: angel and putto symbolism is virtually absent from Jewish mourning jewellery, since figural depiction of angels is not established in the Jewish tradition.

Decline in the late nineteenth century

In the late nineteenth century, angels and putti lose importance in secular mourning jewellery. Three reasons:

Secularisation of mourning jewellery. The logic of Victorian court mourning is less religious than the older sentimental jewellery tradition. The mourning piece is primarily a code of social obligation, not a religious confession. Angel symbolism thus remains confined to religiously active wearers.

Reduction to material. The Victorian preference for purely matt-black materials (Whitby jet, vulcanite) makes fine figural depictions such as angels and putti technically difficult.

Competition from photography. The spread of the daguerreotype and albumen photography displaces the painted angel composition as a pictorial medium. Instead of an allegorical angel standing for the dead child, a real photograph of the child is set into the locket.

In the Edwardian era (1901–1910) and the early twentieth century, angels and putti appear only sporadically - mostly in religious Catholic contexts or in markedly historicising sentimental pieces.

Angels in modern memorial jewellery

In today's jewellery market, angel symbolism lives on above all in one specific area:

Pendants for babies lost before or shortly after birth. The most important modern application. For infants who died early, for miscarriages and for children who died very soon after birth, small pendants or lockets with an angel or putto motif are commissioned - often engraved with dates of birth and death, sometimes with a tiny hollow setting for ashes or with a fingerprint (see Memorial Jewellery for Stillbirth and Infant Loss). This specific sub-genre is well developed in the German-speaking countries; specialist workshops in Germany, Austria and Switzerland make such pieces in four-figure numbers each year.

Guardian angel pendants. A broader genre combining both memorial and protective functions. Small angel pendants are offered for children, for adults as good-luck charms and for the bereaved as memorial pieces. The iconography is usually abstracted (a simple angel silhouette, a small wing form) and not primarily specific to mourning.

Religious mourning pieces. In families of Catholic character, angel lockets, putto pendants and combined cross-and-angel pieces continue to be commissioned after a death. This genre is small but stable, and present above all in southern Germany, Austria, Italy and the South American diaspora.

In the mainstream workshop practice of modern memorial jewellery (fingerprint pendants, photograph lockets, memorial rings), angels and putti barely appear. They are confined to the religious and the early-infant-loss genres - as iconographically well-marked special pieces, not as part of the standard grammar of memorial jewellery.