Caravaggio (1571-1610)
Amorino dormiente (Sleeping Cupid)
1608
Oil on canvas, 72 x 105 cm
Galleria Palatina, Firenze
In classical antiquity Cupid, the god of love, was always depicted as a young boy armed with bow and arrows. Such images were known as representations of Cupido (Latin for “desire”). It is no accident that the personification of desire is a small child − it functions as a reference to the playful, impetuous and accidental nature of desire, of love. Whomever the boy’s arrows of love pierce becomes a slave to his or her feelings. In the visual arts desire is often depicted as an emotion oscillating between an unintentionally triggered, dangerous emotional state from which there is no escape, and the positive effects of desire and love. What sets the Florentine painting apart is that Caravaggio chose to depict the divine personification of love asleep − the emotion of love has withered, or is still dormant. (KHM)