| Sleeping Cupid | |
|---|---|
 Giulio Romano'sYoung Jupiter inNational Gallery, London, possibly contains a citation of Michelangelo'sSleeping Cupid | |
| Artist | Michelangelo |
| Year | 1496 |
| Preceded by | Angel (Michelangelo) |
| Followed by | Bacchus (Michelangelo) |
TheSleeping Cupid is a now-lost sculpture created by Renaissance artistMichelangelo, which he artificially aged to make it look like an antique on the advice ofLorenzo di Pierfrancesco in order to sell for a higher price. It was this sculpture which first brought him to the attention of patrons inRome.[1]
Michelangelo began working on his sleepingcupid in 1495, inFlorence, Italy. Michelangelo never said why he carved a sculpture of a cupid, but it is known that he studied a sculpture in theMedici Gardens that contained a sleeping cupid.[2]Ascanio Condivi, the Italian Painter, described Michelangelo's work as "a god of love, aged six or seven years old and asleep".[3]
Michelangelo created the sculpture and then passed it onto a dealer, Baldassare del Milanese. Eventually the sleeping cupid was bought byCardinal Riario of San Giorgio; controversy arose when he discovered the statue was falsely aged[4] and demanded his money back. However, Michelangelo was permitted to keep his share of the money.[5][6] When Michelangelo offered to take the sculpture back from Baldassare when he learned how much money he made off of selling it, Baldassare refused, saying, "he would rather break it into a hundred pieces; he had bought the child, and it was his property".[2]
TheSleeping Cupid was a significant work in establishing the reputation of the young Michelangelo, who was 21 at the time.[7] The sculpture was later donated byCesare Borgia toIsabella d'Este, and was probably collected byCharles I of England when all theGonzaga collections were bought and taken toLondon in the seventeenth century.[5]
It was previously impossible to attempt to identify Michelangelo's cupid, until Paul Norton's proposal that Michelangelo's work may be in theAlbum of Busts and Statues in Whitehall.[8] This led to one of the cupids on the album to be thought to be Michelangelo's lost cupid, as the description matches quite well. But it is still unknown if this is the exact one Michelangelo created, as there is no record of the statue after the original sale.[2]
In 1698, theSleeping Cupid was most likely destroyed in the great fire in thePalace of Whitehall,London along with many other fine works of art.[5] It is unknown what happened to the sculpture.
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