The Toilet of Venus ('The Rokeby Venus')

The mirror seems to promise the face that the reclining figure hides from us. Cupid holds it towards Venus, but the reflection remains blurred. Her body is much easier to follow than her identity. Diego Velázquez, the Spanish court painter, made the picture between 1647 and 1651. Venus is the goddess of love, and Cupid is her son. Their mythological roles allowed painters and collectors to explore a subject that was controversial in seventeenth-century Spain, where openly sensual images met religious disapproval. Look at the long curve of her back and the folded satin beneath her. The skin is smoothly described, while parts of Cupid and the surrounding fabrics are painted more loosely. These different degrees of finish keep attention on the reclining figure. The familiar name Rokeby Venus comes from Rokeby Park in County Durham, where the painting hung during much of the nineteenth century. Its more formal title, The Toilet of Venus, refers to the goddess attending to her appearance. The mirror makes that ordinary action unusually difficult to resolve.