Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Morpheus (Oneiroi).
The gallery
Morpheus and Iris
Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1811
An oil by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin showing Iris waking or addressing Morpheus, the shaper of dreams. Neoclassical flesh and cool drapery stage Ovid's dream-messenger as a sleeping youth interrupted by the rainbow goddess — sleep personified at the threshold of waking.
Morpheus (Sleep)
Jean-Bernard Restout, c. 1771
An oil by Jean-Bernard Restout in the Cleveland Museum of Art, exhibited as Morpheus or Sleep. A nude youth sinks into oblivion on dark drapery — the Oneiros who takes human form in dreams reduced to pure, academic repose, the body as the vessel of night.
Aurora Awakening Morpheus
Bartolomeo Altomonte, 1769
A ceiling or decorative oil by Bartolomeo Altomonte in which Aurora, goddess of dawn, rouses Morpheus from sleep. Light breaks over the dream-god's limbs — the daily contest between daybreak and the architect of dreams, painted for an Austrian Baroque interior.