The Rokeby Venus

Excellent online lecture from the National Gallery on the Rokeby Venus by Velazquez.

Fiona Alderton talked about where the picture sat in Velazquez’s career and about likely inspiration for it from the Spanish royal collection including the Titian’s Poesie and works by Rubens. She then looked at it’s composition and in particular discussed the role of the mirror in the picture. Is it a commentary on aging? Is the woman actually looking at us via the mirror?

She then talked about wo might have commissioned the work as it was actually to paint or own nude pictures at the time in Spain. She talked about how it was owned later by Manuel de Godoy who also owned Goya’s naked and clothed Maya before being bought by John Morritt of Rokeby Hall.

She finished by talking about how the National Gallery bought the picture via a fund raising campaign and the incident in 1914 when it damaged by the suffragette, Mary Richardson, and the public reaction to that. 

 

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