Sleeping Ariadne

An anonymous engraving depicting Sleeping Ariadne. This figure is connected to a statue which is a Roman copy after a Hellenistic original (2nd century BC), now in the Vatican Museum. This print, unknown to Bartsch, is probably a copy after an engraving by Marcantonio (see RCIN 854555 for it). Trimmed within the platemark.

Parker (see Bibliographic References), affirms that this statue was "the inspiration for Raphael's figure of Calliope of the Parnassus", painted in c.1510-11 in the Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican. A drawing in the Ashmolean Museum, previously believed to be by Raphael, is considered the oldest existing copy of the statue (see RCIN 854554 for a photograph of the drawing) and Parker rejected any connection with another engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi of the same subject (see RCIN 854557 for the engraving). 

This statue was purchased from Angelo Maffei in 1512 by Pope Julius II, who placed it in the Belvedere Courtyard, Vatican where it was used as decoration for a fountain. The figure was initially identified as Cleopatra because of the snake bracelet on the upper left arm, reminiscent of the asp that caused her death. At the end of the 18th century, Ennio Quirino Visconti recognised her as Ariadne, the princess who, after helping Theseus escaping from Minos' labyrinth, was left asleep on the island of Naxos, until the arrival of Dionysus.