At the Vittoriale degli Italiani, in the so-called «Leda’s room», Gabriele d’Annunzio’s own bedroom, there are two works by painter Astolfo de Maria, the Dogaressa (i.e. the wife of the doge) and an Erotic allegory. D’Annunzio always refused to part with the former; and he was personally involved in the peculiar framing of the second, a real tableau de chevetsince it was placed at the head of his bed. Several theories have been put forward as regards the possible sources for the subjects of the two apparently unrelated paintings, but d’Annunzio’s play Sogno d’un tramonto d’autunno (An autumn sunset dream) is the only one source that can be identified for both. The close connection between the literary work and the two paintings, and the meaning these must have had for d’Annunzio explain the role these pictures had as objects d’affection and the peculiar place they held in the poet’s bedroom since the first arrangement of the rooms of the Vittoriale.