The Story
Sleeping Cupid by Caravaggio. Edith Perry Chapman Fund, 1951
Created in 1515 during the Renaissance period, this work belongs firmly within the love & romance tradition. Caravaggio worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in Bronze, partially oil-gilt, measuring Overall (confirmed): 8 7/8 × 7 3/4 × 7 1/2 in. (22.5 × 19.7 × 19.1 cm), the surface rewards close looking. Caravaggio builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
