‘I Sleep but my Heart Waketh’

Here, we see a sleeping putti lying underneath a set of trees, holding a ribbon. The text that can be seen on the scroll is from the Song of Solomon, chapter five, verse two; ‘ I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night’.

This work was created after a well-known painting by the Spanish artist Alonso Cano (1601 – 1667) that was once owned by King Louis-Philippe. The original work was also used as inspiration for an etching by the Italian artist Bernardo Consorti (1785 – 1859).