Caravaggio, Van Dyck and Murillo at the Galleria Palatina

In 1667, Cardinal Leopold de' Medici bought a painting by Caravaggio, “Cupid” asleep.

This painting, in which Caravaggio succeeded (his trademark) in making his characters fully present and alive, shows Cupid barely asleep, still holding an arrow in one hand, while a feather still flies above him, perhaps carried by his breath.

Some fine portraits by Antoine Van Dyck and a Virgin and Child by Murillo can also be admired in this fine Florentine museum in the Palazzo Pitti.

Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi, Cupid asleep, 1608, Palatina Pitti Gallery, Florence Italy

Caravaggio, Cupid asleep

Antoine Van Dyck, Portrait of Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio, 1622-1623, Palatina Pitti Gallery, Florence Italy

Van Dyck, Cardinal Bentivoglio

Antoine Van Dyck, Portrait of Charles I of England and the Duchess Henriette of France, 1622, Palatina Pitti Gallery, Florence Italy

Van Dyck, Charles I of England and Henriette of France

Van Dyck, Portrait of a man

Murillo, Virgin and Child