Teasing a Sleeping Girl
ca. 1760
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
34 1/8 x 42 3/8 in. (86.7 x 107.6 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Harry G. Sperling, 1971
Accession Number
1976.100.19
Tags
Art Historical Context
Gaspare Traversi's *Teasing a Sleeping Girl* (ca. 1760), an oil on canvas measuring 34 1/8 x 42 3/8 inches, captures a mischievous moment in everyday life. This Neapolitan master's genre scene likely depicts men playfully engaging with a sleeping girl, evoking the intimate, voyeuristic humor common in 18th-century Italian painting. The large-scale canvas allows Traversi to showcase his skill in rendering fabrics, skin tones, and subtle expressions with rich, luminous oils. Traversi, active in mid-18th-century Naples, drew from Caravaggesque traditions, employing dramatic chiaroscuro—deep shad...