A pair of Italian gilt-bronze putti bearing palms, 17th century, probably Rome

on later cylindrical white marble socles.

M. H. Schwartz (ed.), European Sculpture from the Abbott Guggenheim Collection, New York, 2008, no. 63, p. 127

The plump cheeks, fleshy bodies, thick hair and sweeping poses of these gilt-bronze putti recall Bernini's baroque style, dominant in Rome in the 17th century.  Palms were in ancient Rome a symbol of victory, and in Christian iconography came to denote the triumph of a martyr over death.  The present pair may have adorned a monument or altar to a martyred saint.