Featured artwork
Artist: Giorgione (Giorgio Barbarelli Da Castelfranco)
Style: High Renaissance
Sleeping Venus (Dresden Venus), is a painting by Giorgione, with, it is now generally accepted, the landscape and sky, by Titian, completed after Giorgione's death in 1510. It is in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden. The painting portrays a nude woman whose profile seems to follow that of the hills in the background. The choice of a nude woman marked a revolution in art, and is considered by some authorities one of the starting points of modern art. Underlying erotic implications are made by Venus's raised arm and the placement of her left hand on her groin. The sheets are painted in silver, being a cold color rather than the more commonly used warm tones for linens. The landscape mimics the curves of the woman's body and this, in turn, relates the human body back to being a natural, organic object. The composition of this painting influenced later some noted painters.
