Sleeping Venus (Carracci)

Sleeping Venus
A painting of a nude woman sleeping outdoors on a red couch with her left arm behind her head and with many putti engaged in various activities around her
ArtistAnnibale Carracci
Yearc. 1603 (1603)
MediumOil on canvas
SubjectVenus and putti
Dimensions190 cm × 328 cm (75 in × 129 in)
LocationMusée Condé, Chantilly, Oise, France

Sleeping Venus (also known as Sleeping Venus with Putti)[1] is a c. 1603 painting by Annibale Carracci held by the Musée Condé in Chantilly, Oise, France.[2] This oil painting measures 190x328cm.[3] It depicts Venus sleeping with her arm above her head as putti frolic around her.[4] Carracci painted Sleeping Venus for Odoardo Farnese.[5] Giovanni Battista Agucchi wrote an ekphrasis of this painting that Carlo Cesare Malvasia included in his book Life of the Carracci.[6] In The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Giovanni Pietro Bellori wrote a description of the painting that paraphrases Agucchi's ekphrasis without citation.[7]

  1. ^ Weststeijn (2008), p. 157.
  2. ^ Witte (2008), p. 35.
  3. ^ Fried (2010), p. 161.
  4. ^ Lattuada (2001), p. 372.
  5. ^ van Gastel (2013), p. 156.
  6. ^ Summerscale (2000), p. 49.
  7. ^ Wohl (2005), p. 30.