If you’re looking to understand more about sleep, one of the best ways to do that is through viewing visual art. For centuries, we’ve captured themes, symbols, and historical scenes of human civilization, including how we view sleep and what we believe it represents. You might be surprised by some of the portrayals of sleep in paintings and drawings, including what we believed it meant many years ago!
In this article, we’ll explore how sleep is represented in the visual arts, including why it is so significant to us. We’ll look at some of the historical representations of sleep, the themes that are present in artwork, and how we can interpret it as a society if you’re ready to explore artwork and how people have represented sleep in their masterpieces.
Historical Perspectives on Sleep in Artwork
Sleep in Visual Art in the Prehistoric and Ancient World
Throughout the course of human history, society has presented sleep in various ways. Dating all the way back to prehistoric times, sleep was seen as sacred, especially for women. The Sleeping Lady from Malta is one work of art that shows how sleep for women is symbolic and tied to femininity or even fertility.
Yet, in ancient Greece, for example, depictions of gods like Eros, the god of love, show that sleep can be seen as a state of renewal or an escape from the intensity of life. Much of the ancient world created artwork and visual work that was more in-depth than we might imagine, diving deep into the psychological meaning behind our common actions and behaviors.
How Medieval and Renaissance Artists Captured Sleep in Artwork
However, as we turn to medieval times, the way that artists captured sleep in visual art changed even more. The Renaissance was one of the most impactful eras for art because of how much it focused on realism and human emotion. All we have to do is turn to works like Night by Michelangelo or Danaë by Titian.
To medieval and Renaissance society, sleep was seen as a metaphor for faith, sensuality, and even melancholy. Some of the most intriguing representations in the artwork are related to Christian values, too. Botticelli, one famous Renaissance painter, depicted sleep as a state where the divine is revealed, and the individual can realize higher states of being. The emphasis on tying our natural activities to the Bible to explain the human experience—even with sleep—became more pronounced during this era.
Later Interpretations of Sleep in Visual Masterpieces
While many of the ancient and Renaissance interpretations of sleep in visual art took on a spiritual or even psychological significance, later modern works were more honest about the challenges of getting sleep. Numerous paintings and depictions from the 18th and 19th centuries show that while some sleep, others are awake because life goes on and the town must continue with its usual activity and tasks.
Other modern works also looked closer at the importance of dreaming and how this occurs in our sleep. Henri Rousseau’s The Dream is still on display so that viewers can see the numerous creatures that the onlooker in the dream can see. Looking even more deeply at our dreams shows that, as a society, we want to know more about why our dreams happen and what they mean for us as individuals.
With an understanding of how sleep and dreaming have been depicted in artwork, you might be wondering more about the themes surrounding these visual works. Let’s explore that next.
The Main Themes Presented in Visual Art Depicting Dreams and Sleep
As you can imagine, there are so many themes presented in art that depict people sleeping or dreaming. Even in prehistoric times, we were creating visual art such as paintings and films to represent what we dreamed about, why we slept, and what it meant. Here are a few of the most common themes that are presented in visual art to show how sleep is represented and what it means:
- Religion and Mythology: Faith is one of the most common themes seen in artwork that shows people sleeping or dreaming. Botticelli is one of the best examples of this, as much of his work shows how we can sleep and get closer to God through our resting state. The same was also true in the ancient world, where people thought that they could hear messages from the gods and goddesses!
- Life Stages and Death: Artwork that shows people sleeping can also be seen as a visual representation of life’s stages. For example, a child sleeping shows the innocence and purity of life, while a young woman shows the serenity of rest, and then an older gentleman may show the final rest before death approaches. For some artists, this was also a matter of exploring different genders and their unique experiences.
- Daily Life and Intimacy: One of the most important themes related to sleep in visual art is the way that artists want to depict daily life. This was also true of prehistoric art, where people would show themselves resting after a hunt. Sleep is a vulnerable activity but a part of our lives, which is why artists focused on showing us in this resting state. It also showed domesticity in the Renaissance and beyond and how people associated with it.
- Unspoken Desires and Dreams: Another intriguing use of artwork to depict sleeping was the exploration of unspoken desires and feelings. This is very true when looking at surrealism as an art movement, mainly because the artwork sought to expose people’s dreams, including images and texts, and what they meant. So, next time you view a painting that shows someone sleeping that seems imaginary, it might be for this very purpose: to explore our unconscious desires.
Why Do You Think People Painted Depictions of Rest?
From films to photos to paintings, we’ve depicted rest and dreaming in various ways. It’s one of the many things that ties us together as a society as we explore why we sleep and what it provides us. We hope you learned something new about how visual art depicts sleep and how it is represented in artwork. Next time you watch a film and see someone resting or see a Renaissance painting of a woman taking a nap, now you know some of the themes that likely inspired the artist!