The rokeby Venus – the national gallery
It is a very large painting, not of photographic standard which can be easily defined as a painting from afar and up close. Due to its sense of perspective, and the way in which the brush strokes have created the panting.
The metaphorical meaning behind it is questionable, as it can easily be perceived and morphed into what ever the eyes of the beholder viewing it want the painting to mean something vastly different.
The fact that she is looking into a mirror could mean that she was gazing into the mirror at her lover who was painting her.
The qupid baby/ angle could sybalise a great number of things, however I view it to link back to the lover that is painting her, and possibly the lust for children of her own?
It confuses me greatly as to why her face has been painted in such a vague, blurry fashion, possibly to conceal her the woman’s identity. Maybe?
Another question as to why the baby has a ribbon in his hands? Does this have any great meaning to the painting or is it just for ‘feathery’ decoration.
Does the title of the piece add another meaning to the painting? Title – the toilet of Venus ?? Quite possibly.
1647 – 51
Female Nude v rare in Spanish painting at this date.
Observing the viewer rather than herself !
Venus reclines on a bed before the mirror held up by a winged Cupid.
