SLEEPING

Ariane Endormie

Detail of a marvelously baroque--speaking in terms of dramatic movement--sculpture of Ariande, or Ariane to the French, in the formal gardens of the Château de Versailles.  The work by Cornielle Van Clève was executed in 1688 and is a copy of a bronze sculpture cast by Le Primatice (Primaticcio), which itself was modeled after a marble Ariande at the Vatican. The bronze had been commissioned by François I for Fontainebleau. Until the 19th century the sculpture was known as Cléopâtre (Cleopatra) because of the serpent wound around her arm.

Vocabulary
endormir:  to fall asleep
endormi(e):  asleep, sleepy


©2016 P.B. Lecron