"The Sleeping Venus" by Paul Delvaux

A few days ago, in a flash of serendipitous chance (which Andre Breton himself would have adored), I stumbled into a bookstore near Dupont Circle. On one of its feature shelves, a certain book presented itself to me, as if it knew I would glance in its direction: The Surrealist Revolution in France by Herbert S. Gershman. After reading through the first few chapters, a certain artist by the name of Paul Delvaux was brought to my attention. The painting I would like to focus on today is "The Sleeping Venus."

"Sleeping Venus" is an obviously Surrealist painting, especially rich with influences from Rene Magritte, a painter whom Delvaux revered. The typical juxtaposition is present: the sleeping Goddess and the serene Greco-Roman architecture contrasted eerily with naked women panicking and mourning over some unnamed catastrophe. This whole image is further juxtaposed with a clothed woman conversing with a skeleton (which includes enough imagery to be considered a Surrealist image in and of itself).

The Greco-Roman influence which is so prevalent in this painting seems most definitely a Freudian influence. From the classic architectural setting to the sleeping Goddess of sex and beauty at the forefront of the painting, it seems apparent that Freud's love of classics carried over to Delvaux. Throughout The Interpretation of Dreams, as well as his other writings, Freud makes various references to the world of classics, citing intellectuals like Aristotle, Macrobius, and Artemidorus, and even discussing the ways in which his desire to visit Rome had been reinforced "from the impressions of [his] childhood" (referring to his classics education as a boy -- chapter 5.B.). Freud even frequently (and this is not an overstatement in the slightest) uses classic literature to make points. The most obvious example is his use of the term Oedipus Complex when referring to one of his most famous theories, of course referring back to the Greek play Oedipus Rex. Perhaps Delvaux was touched by Freud's own unintentional (yet somehow beautiful) juxtaposition of Greco-Roman imagery with psychoanalytic theory.

Furthermore, "The Sleeping Venus" is full of sexual imagery. After all, Venus is the Goddess of sexuality, and naked women are strewn about in the background. Since the focal point of the painting is an obvious representation of sexuality, we may assume that a major theme of the painting is sexuality itself. Perhaps the women in the background are terrified at the fact that they are naked. If this were the case, it seems to be heavily influenced by Freud. After all, The Interpretation of Dreams has an entire section titled "The Embarrassment-Dream of Nakedness." If the women are not terrified simply by being naked, perhaps they are calling out for a mate. There is not a single male in the painting, except perhaps the skeleton. This brings to mind a section from Freud's "The Transformation of Puberty" titled The Object-Finding:

The child behaves here like the adult, that is, it changes its libido into fear when it cannot bring it to gratification, and the grown-up who becomes neurotic on account of ungratified libido behaves in his anxiety like a child; he fears when he is alone, ie, without a person of whose love he believes himself sure, and who can calm his fears by means of the most childish measures.

Perhaps the women in the painting are becoming "neurotic" or generally fearful from a lack of libidinal gratification. This possibility also points to an obvious influence from Freud's theories.

Many of the points I have made may be argued against and are by no means complete analyses of "The Sleeping Venus." Nonetheless, the painting seems to contain a large amount of Freudian influences, whether the psychoanalysis of sexuality or Freud's apparent interest in classics.