Dreams are as commonplace as breathing, but as elusive as the air. Although practically everyone dreams on a nightly basis, very few people remember or understand their dreams. Looking at paintings from the Renaissance, it is perceivable that the interpretation of dreams predates Freud. Many paintings portray people currently sleeping, suddenly waking up or being woken up, or dreaming. The current exhibition at the Musee du Luxembourg focuses on the little discussed aspect of sleep and dreams in the art of the Renaissance. Painters such as Veronese and Hieronymus Bosch depicted their subjects’ dreams in several of their paintings. But while Veronese used dreaming as a state to reach religious…