Explore the Influences and influence of this artwork, Sleeping Venus (Giorgione).
The pose of the figure has been connected with a figure in one of the woodcut illustrations to Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of 1499, but a nude of this size, as a single subject, was unprecedented in Western painting, and to a large extent determined the treatment of the type for centuries to come, excluding, for example, the more explicit treatment in the contemporary engravings of Giovanni Battista Palumba.  Although prints had contained many more nude female figures, the two famous paintings of Botticelli, the Birth of Venus and the Primavera, are the closest precedents in painting.  The contemplative attitude toward nature and beauty of the figure is typical of Giorgione.
The composition of this painting was highly influential, despite very public display of such images often being restricted for some centuries.  The influence of this painting or paintings it influenced can be traced in a number of later reclining nudes such as the Pardo Venus and Venus of Urbino of Titian, the Rokeby Venus of Velázquez, Goya's teasing La maja desnuda, and Olympia by Manet, and other works by Ingres and Rubens, to name but a few.
Titian Goya Venus of Urbino Hypnerotomachia Poliphili Ingres Primavera Manet Rokeby Venus La maja desnuda prints Birth of Venus Botticelli Western painting Pardo Venus Rubens woodcut engraving Velázquez Giovanni Battista Palumba Giorgione