Sleeping Venus without Amor

New Insights into a Key Work by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Younger

Abstract

In 1826, Johann Baptist von Lampi the Younger created Venus Sleeping on a Day Bed, a painting that would undergo a considerable reworking. After its acquisition by the Imperial Picture Gallery in 1828, large areas of the background were overpainted in black, as revealed by investigations carried out by the Belvedere’s restoration and conservation department in 2022. Through this extensive overpainting, the original figure of the winged Amor—and with it, an important compositional element—was lost. In this paper, I will first situate the original motif of the sleeping Venus with Amor in the earlier pictorial tradition. I will then use archive material to establish the date of this large-scale intervention in the painting. With the help of further case studies, I will show that overpainting was a common practice in the nineteenth century. Finally, I will use historical discussions of the painting to show how the overpainting resulted in a new yet erroneous interpretation of Venus Sleeping on a Day Bed as a hidden portrait of one of Napoleon’s lovers, subsequently becoming a topos of local Salzburg history.