Sleeping Girl

Domenico Fetti's Sleeping Girl (1615) is an example of the intimate genre subjects that formed an important part of Fetti's production alongside his biblical parables and mythological works. A sleeping figure — a subject with roots in the tradition of the sleeping Venus — offered the painter both a formal challenge (rendering the relaxed body and closed-eyed face with convincing naturalism) and an opportunity for a mood of private contemplation quite different from the dramatic engagement of history painting. Fetti's sleeping figures, typically rendered with warm, direct light on their faces, have a quality of tender observation that places them at the boundary between portraiture and genre painting.

Fetti employs warm, concentrated light falling on the sleeping figure's face and hands, with the surrounding space falling into softer shadow. His brushwork is fluid and economical, capturing the relaxation of sleep through the posture and the smoothed features of the sleeping face. The palette is warm and intimate.