The Sleeping Venus, depicting the reclining Venus in a calm slumber against the background of a rural landscape, is said to be one of the last incomplete works by the Italian Renaissance painter Giorgione and completed by Titian, after the untimely death of the artist in 1510. It is generally agreed that Titian completed the artwork by painting the landscape in the background and a cherub at Venus’s feet, which was later painted out.

Also known as the Dresden Venus, Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus is one among the first known reclining nude in Western painting, which established the genre of erotic mythological pastoral with female nudes in a landscape. The erotic implications of the Sleeping Venus are made evident by the raised arm of the nude goddess and the placement of her left hand on her groin.

Sleeping Venus is the symbolic image of Nature and the gentle rhythm of the hills in the background harmonizes with the image, while the cloudy sky softens all the contours. The curves of the body of Venus seem to mimic the rolling, lush hills of the landscape behind her. The sensuality of the sleeping beauty is made prominent by her red lips and the deep red velvet and white satin drapery upon which her curved and creamy body lies asleep. However, her serene light forehead, calmly curved eyebrows, gently lowered eyelids and a fine, rigid mouth create an image of transparent purity.

Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus is closed in its perfect beauty and seems to be alienated from the viewer. It intrigued viewers and artists alike, but also inspired other painters, such as Monet, Rubens, Ingres, Palma il Vechhio and Botticelli. Depiction of a reclining nude echoed later, even in Titian’sVenus of Urbino and several other reclining female nudes.

Unfortunately, little is known of Giorgione's life, who came from the small town of Castelfranco Veneto, 40 km inland from Venice and his gifts were recognized in 1500, when he was only twenty-three. According to the available accounts, he was a person of distinguished romantic charm, a great lover and a musician, given to express in his art the sensuous and imaginative grace, touched with poetic melancholy.

He was very closely associated with Titian, who finished at least some paintings of Giorgione after his death. He died of the plague on the 17th of September 1510. His Sleeping Venus, was first recognized by Goivanni Morelli, an Italian art critic, which was also seen by Marcantonio Michiel, a Venetian noble and later by Ridolfi, his biographer, in the Casa Marcello at Venice and today, it is in Dresden.