Artist: Giorgione (1477 — 1510)
Title: Sleeping Venus
Deutsch: Schlummernde Venus
Year: between 1508 and 1510
Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 108 × 175 cm (42.52 × 68.90 in)
Current location: Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
This painting was done by Giorgione in approx. 1509 c. It was unfinished at the time of his death and the sky was later finished by Titian. (Titian also painted a similar Venus, but it was not as agitated and unsettled as Giorgione's nude.) Obviously a painting with underlying erotic implications, this can be seen by the Venus' raised arm (the exposed arm pit a symbol of sexuality) and also the blatant placement of her left hand. The sheets are a silver colour (a cold colour rather than a more commonly used warm tone) and they are very rigid looking (in comparison to Titian's or Velzquez's Venus'). The landscape mimicks the curves of the nude and this in turn relates the human body back to natural, organic object.
