CARACCIOLO, Giovanni Battista
(b. 1578, Napoli, d. 1635, Napoli)

Sleeping Cupid

1618-22
Oil on canvas, 95 x 159 cm
Private collection

The canvas depicts an adolescent, seemingly a sleeping Cupid stretched out on a crimson damask bedspread and pillow trimmed with dark ochre braiding and tassels. A bow and arrow are set on them in the foreground, the tip of the arrow tucked into the folds of the spread.

The most plausible names scholars have advanced so far for the attribution of the work are Orazio Riminaldi and Giovanni Battista Caracciolo. Currently the latter is the most convincing.