Why do artists consider sleep a fascinating story?

Sandro Botticelli, Henri Rousseau, Vincent Van Gogh, Francisco de Goya, Giorgione. They are not only one of the most famous and impressive creators in the history of culture, they also share one common interest: the image of the mysterious state of sleep. Meir Krieger is a professor at the Yale School of Medicine and an expert in sleeping. Sleep attracted him from the moment he can remember himself. "I've been studying sleep for a long time," Krieger explained. "I've always been interested in him."

Sleep Study

Krieger's studies study the mechanics, functions and pathology of sleep, for example, he analyzes breathing during sleep and studies its relationship with heart failure. However, there are certain questions about the mysterious aspects of sleep, which no scientist has even begun to answer. For example, why do people sleep? Why do people see dreams? "For me, sleep is a very mysterious phenomenon," Krieger said. - Definitely, this is a different state. We do not fully understand why we sleep. Of course, there are various theories, but it's impossible to say with certainty. There are also a lot of questions about dreams. Children have some semblance of the ability to see dreams even before they are born. But here there is one more question: what are their dreams about? ".

Dream in art

In one of the chapters of the Atlas of Clinical Sleep Medicine (a book about a dream that Krieger co-wrote with two other specialists in this field), entitled "A Dream in Art and Literature," the authors conduct a reader on the history of art, which includes the theme of sleep , Studying the various ways in which artists depicted a banal, but still incredibly mysterious state of rest. "What can be more boring than a dream?" - Krieger jokes. - But still all these artists have found in him something attractive. Whenever I go to an art gallery or a museum, I am always attracted by pictures of sleep. I'm wondering what was on the mind of the artist who painted a sleeping person. What, from his point of view, does this person do? Does he rest? Is it being restored? Is in danger? What does an artist think when he creates such pictures and what do they mean for a person who then looks at these works of art? ".

Representations of sleep in art

Through analysis, Krieger defined several thematic notions of sleep, which constantly appeared throughout the history of art. "Artists have a very strong admiration for mythology, dreams, religious themes, parallels between sleep and death, rewards, loss of control over consciousness, healing, the image of innocence and tranquility, and eroticism," he explained. And he began with mythology, studying the creation of Sandro Botticelli "Mars and Venus." This painting was written in the fifteenth century and is in this case an ideal example. The picture depicts Venus, the goddess of love, sitting next to Mars, the god of war, while he sleeps. The small satyrs around them play with the arms of Mars and with his unconscious body. "This picture actually says that love overcomes war," Krieger said, describing the power of Venus over Mars at the time of his dream. In this particular picture, sleep is equated with weakness and vulnerability.

Sleeping women

However, "Sleeping Venus" Giorgione, written in 1508, shows a different view of the dream - one that is firmly connected with power and eroticism. Venus rests without clothes, her hand gently covers her genitals, but although she is absolutely open to view, it seems that she completely controls her body and herself. It is in its own world and it seems almost untouchable in this liminal state. Sleep often goes on the same line with the concepts of eroticism and innocence. Everything becomes a bit more complicated when the parallels between sleep and death begin to be drawn. Starting with the iconic picture of John Milla "Ophelia" and ending with the sculpture "Anotomic Venus", which was once considered the medical standard of the anatomical model, history, and in particular the history of art, has long had a tendency to idealize beautiful dead girls. Artists who concentrate on sleeping women occupy a similar territory of the problematic: they assume that the woman is the most desired when she is immobile, although replacing death with sleep makes everything a little less terrifying.

Incredible versatility of sleep

"A sleeping woman can look like a dead woman, but she is definitely alive," Krieger writes in Atlas. - She is conscious, but does not realize. Physically, it lies in the real world, but her thoughts are in a fantasy world. Sleep pleases, frightens, restores and tires. He can hang over us like a heavy indomitable fog, or slip away from us like a sweet feeling of happiness. " In the history of art, there are many more world-famous paintings depicting women than those depicting sleeping men, but Krieger recalls that there are more famous pictures depicting women than paintings depicting men in principle. Some works, such as "Noon: The Rest from Work" by Vincent Van Gogh, show a sleeping man, while showing a dream as a pleasant reward for a long day of hard physical labor.

Plot for everyone

Regardless of whether you are talking about a Renaissance artist or an eccentric surrealist, sleep is an unexpected artistic theme that no creator can resist. Even Andy Warhol touched on this theme in his typical style, recording on video how his friend John Giorno sleeps for five hours and twenty minutes, calling the resulting film pretty simple: "Dream."