The Capitol Dome

and a Seated Bacchante (fig. 8) (1650s). Like- wise performing various activities, Martiny's figures revive Giulio's interpretation of putti with a purpose. Instead of representing ancient activities, like grape harvesting, Mar- tiny updates the occupations in which his putti are engaged. Two such examples can be seen in his printer and electrician sculptures, both of which depict classical putti benefiting from more modern technology. Located along the north staircase, the printer putto (fig. 9) sits surrounded by movable type blocks and a type case, with a printing press behind him. Further along up this flight of stairs, the seated electri- cian putto (fig. 10) wears a headband of electric rays and holds a telephone receiver against his right ear, while telephone wires are wrapped around his right arm and stretched diagonally across his chest. Four of Martiny's putti represent different parts of the world, and are seen as two pairs sitting with a globe between them. Depicting Europe and Asia (fig. 11) along the north stair- case, and Africa and America (fig. 12) along the south staircase, these putti reflect ethnic or racial characterizations of the areas they inhabit, a common western trope of this time period. e Africa putto, for instance, wears a necklace made from the claws of a wild beast and rests his le hand on a club to emphasize what the nineteenth-century western world typically interpreted as Africans' warlike men- tality. ree of the four putti, Africa, Asia, and Europe, gesture to the areas on each globe that they represent. Unlike the other putti, though, the America putto has his hand raised to his forehead, shading his eyes. Similar images of figures posed with hands against foreheads appear in other artists' works repeatedly, and with various meanings. In some paintings, a young woman might shield her eyes while gazing out of the picture plane, anticipating the imminent arrival of her lover. In cases where a painting is a portrait of an art- ist, the interpretation can be quite different. In an early self-portrait (fig. 13) (1747) by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), an influential English painter and the first President of the Royal Academy of Arts, he holds his painting 24 Fig. 8. Michel Dorigny. Putti with Grapes and a Seated Bacchante, ca. 1650s, etching with engraving on laid paper. Fig. 7. Giovanni Andrea Podesta. Landscape with a Bacchanal of Putti and a Goat, first half of the 17th century, pen and brown ink, with am- ing lines in brown ink at the top and bottom edges. THE CAPITOL DOME

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