Painting the Dream

Organised by period, from the Middle Ages to the present, this engaging book shows how the idea of the dream, and its depictions, have shifted throughout history, from the biblical dreama communication from Godto the deeply personal dream, the lighthearted fantasy, the nightmare. Sometimes these ideas have existed simultaneously: thus we have, only a few years apart, Raphaels limpid High Renaissance composition of Jacob dreaming his Ladder; Albrecht Drers watercolour of a mysterious deluge that he saw in his own slumbers; and Hieronymus Boschs nightmarish hellscapes. More recently, movements such as Symbolism and Surrealism have taken the dream as a primary source of inspiration, even conflating dreaming and the creative process itself. This rich vein of visionary art runs from Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon, through De Chirico and Dal, down to the presentdemonstrating, as Bergez reminds us, that Morpheus was a god of form as well as of dreams.