Vénus et Cupidon (Vénus endormie)

Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the very few women running a successful painting workshop in 17th-century Italy, and here she takes on a subject almost always painted by men, the sleeping female nude. Venus lies asleep on a blue sheet while her son Cupid cools her with a fan of peacock feathers. The blue is no cheap pigment. Gentileschi built it up in two layers of ground lapis lazuli, the stone that cost more than gold, a sign the picture was made for a wealthy and demanding patron. Look at the goddess's face, the heavy lids and strong nose and small chin, and you are looking at a version of the painter's own features, which she reused again and again across her work.