Sleeping Venus
c. 1510 · Oil on canvas · Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
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About this work
- Artist
- Giorgione (1478–1510)
- Year
- c. 1510
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 108.5 × 175 cm
- Collection
- Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
- Movement
- Renaissance
Venus lies asleep on a red cushion and a white sheet spread over the grass, one arm behind her head, her body echoing the gentle curves of the hills beyond, where farm buildings stand under a cloudy afternoon sky. It is the earliest known reclining nude in Western painting and set a pattern for the Venetian reclining nude, followed by Titian's Venus of Urbino. In 1525 Marcantonio Michiel saw it in the house of Girolamo Marcello in Venice and described it as by Giorgione, with the landscape and a Cupid finished by Titian; Marcello's marriage in 1507 may have been its occasion. The Cupid at her feet was painted over in the nineteenth century. Titian's hand in the landscape is widely accepted, and much recent scholarship sees him in the figure too, leaving Giorgione's share uncertain. Bought for Augustus the Strong of Saxony in 1695 as a Giorgione, it was later catalogued as a Titian, and Giovanni Morelli restored the attribution in the nineteenth century. It hangs in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A sleeping Venus on white and red drapery in a soft green and gold landscape under a cloudy sky, long and calm, for a bedroom above the bed at 24×36 in black. A warm white, sage or deep red wall; it pairs with The Nude Maja (La maja desnuda).
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Renaissance painting
- Era
- 16th century (c. 1510)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- intimate
- Rooms
- bedroom, living room, dining room, hallway or entryway
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×36. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Sleeping Venus in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Sleeping Venus painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
