Nymph in a Landscape

Nymph in a Landscape or Resting Venus is a c. 1518-1520 oil on canvas painting by Palma Vecchio, now in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden.

Its iconography derives from the Sleeping Venus by Giorgione, also now in Dresden.

[1] The painting derives iconographically from Giorgione's Venus of Dresden, in a way so that some have even identified it as representing a reclined Venus.

This work speaks of women who in the ancient world were considered like wood nymphs, capable of enchanting men with a single glance, and dragging them into a world of joys, but also of pains of love.

Hence the languid and sensual body of the woman, completely naked and awake, without even a gesture of modesty as in Titian's Venus of Urbino, seems to be an obstacle to the winding road that can be seen in the landscape, as a symbol of moral elevation.