Four Frolicking Putti

This puzzling early work, precisely dated September 18, 1506, on the pedestal carried by one of the putti, takes inspiration from a variety of sources both ancient and contemporary. The figures are closely related to ones found on Roman sarcophagi (stone coffins). If Marcantonio saw the example now in the Princeton University Art Museum, then he took the figures struggling with a herm and recast them using the physique of the putti seen in other parts of the frieze. Some of the trees are lifted straight from a Dürer woodcut. The winged anchor held by the central putto likely refers to the ancient Latin adage Festina Lente (make haste slowly), a motto adopted by Aldus Manutius, the prolific Renaissance publisher of classical texts.