Allegory of Sleep

Allegory of Sleep

Giorgio Vasari

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The two rapid sketches with the Allegory of Forgetfulness (acc. no. 67.95.3) and the Allegory of Sleep (acc. no. 67.95.4) were executed in pen and brown ink by the Renaissance artist and historian Giorgio Vasari in a quick and spontaneous manner to record his ideas for a ceiling or wall decoration. In 1981 Julian Kliemann pointed out that Vasari’s allegorical drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art correspond with two sections of a ceiling decoration of a bedroom (possibly for Francesco I de' Medici) planned by Vincenzo Borghini in a text datable ca. 1569-70. The Allegory of Forgetfulness is represented as a river god resting on an urn from which flow the dark waters of Lethe. The sleeping leopard and lizard in the foreground play emblematic roles, while "certi spiritelli come diavolini," representing cares, fly away at upper right. The Allegory of Sleep (acc. no. 67.95.4) differs in a number of ways from Vincenzo Borghini's description for the bedroom project. The essential elements of Borghini's scheme are nonetheless present: Sleep is attended by a young woman, and butterfly-winged putti holding mirrors appear above.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.