The Sleeping Princess and the “Dove Book” in the Last Painting of the “Poem of Seven Fairy Tales” Cycle

The poetic and original "Sleeping Princess", completed by Vasnetsov a year before his death, in 1926, is considered one of his finest paintings.

The princess has fallen asleep together with the entire sovereign's court; even the bear that was to have danced at her wedding is asleep. An enchanted slumber has enveloped them all. A little girl sleeps behind an open volume of the "Dove Book", a mysterious ancient book that unveils the riddles of the creation of the world.

On the open page one can read the beginning of the first verse:

"The bright world began from the Holy Spirit,
From the Holy Spirit, from Christ Himself,
From Christ Himself, the Heavenly Tsar.
The red sun from the face of God,
The young bright moon from the breast of God,
The frequent stars from the robes of God,
The bright dawns from the eyes of God,
From Christ Himself, the Heavenly Tsar."

Literal translation

The painting became the last of the pictorial cycle "Poem of Seven Tales", which also included "The Unsmiling Princess", "The Frog Princess", "Baba Yaga", "Koschei the Deathless", "Sivka-Burka" and "The Flying Carpet". The canvas is very large: 4.5 by 2.14 metres. The painting is kept in the Vasnetsov House Museum in Moscow.