Florentine school of the second half of the 17th century, after Francesco Albani (Bologna 1578-1660 Bologna) Sleeping Venus, watched over by a cherub. Oil on canvas (canvas probably original). 53 x 68 cm. Crackling, restorations, small chips. Our painting reproduces but isolates a detail from a famous composition by Francesco Albani dating from 1621, "Adonis led to Venus by the Lovers" (2.03 m x 2.52 m, Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv.12). Commissioned by the Duke of Mantua Ferdinando Gonzaga (1587-1626) for his Villa Favorita, the work is part of a suite of four (erroneously considered "The Four Elements"). It subsequently passed into the collection of Paolo Francesco Falconieri in Florence, circa 1663-1665. It seems to us that it was while the suite was on view at Falconieri's Florence home (now Palazzo Bagnesi) that our painting may have been produced. Falconieri was then approached by Louis XIV himself, a great admirer of Albani's style. He acquired the suite in 1684-1685. In 1695 and 1706, they were displayed in the Grand Cabinet de Monseigneur at Versailles, then in the Grand Trianon in 1760. Seized during the Revolution, they were exhibited at the Muséum des Arts from 1793.