How are you?
On every Thursday, I am
introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the
title “Interesting Art Stories”.
The 20th story for this week is The
“Rokeby Venus” by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez.
Diego Velázquez
The “Rokeby Venus” is a painting by Diego Velázquez, one of the leading
artists of the Spanish Golden Age. Completed between 1647 and 1651 and presumed
to have been drawn when Velázquez visited Italy, this work depicts the goddess
Venus in a sensual pose, lying on a bed and looking at a mirror held by her son
Cupid.
Many of the paintings from the ancient to the Baroque inspired Velázquez
to draw this painting. Some of the important precedents are the nude Venuses of
the Italian painters such as Giorgione's “Sleeping Venus” (c. 1510) and
Titian's “Venus of Urbino” (1534). This painting is the only surviving piece of
female nude painting by Velázquez, and one of his most controversial, as well
as one of his best works.
Sleeping Venus, Giorgione (c. 1510)
Venus of Urbino, Titian (1534)
In the 17th-century Spanish art when Velasquez drew
this painting, nude paintings were extremely rare, and these were the subject
to surveillance by the Spanish Inquisition. At the time, the Spanish
Inquisition had a lot of discussion about what was allowed and what wasn’t in
the paintings, and nude paintings were included in the “naughty” list.
Therefore, it was common for artists who painted the nudes to be fined, excommunicated,
and their works seized.
In the case of Velasquez, he could get away from it only
because he was under the patronage of the Spanish king, Philip IV.
Nevertheless, it is ironic that foreign artists' nude paintings were keen collection
of the court circle at the time.
This painting was hung in the houses of
Spanish courtiers and moved to the Rokeby Park in England in 1813, staying
there for almost a century and then has been held by the National Gallery in
London since 1906.
The National Gallery
There are many paintings influenced by this painting, one of
which is “Olympia” painted by Édouard Manet in 1863. Manet paraphrased the
Rokeby Venus by drawing a real woman as a model, not an ethereal goddess.
Olympia, Edouard Manet (1863)
The
“Rokeby Venus” is also a painting that was badly damaged in a malicious attack
and became a headline again in 1914. On March 10, 1914, the suffragette
Mary Richardson entered the National Gallery and attacked Velázquez's painting
with a meat knife.
Mary Richardson
Although there were advance warnings that there would be a planned
suffragette attack on the painting, her action was provoked to protest the
arrest of fellow suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst the previous day. Richardson's
attack damaged the painting, but it was successfully restored by Helmut
Ruhemann, a painting restoration expert at the National Gallery.
Emmeline Pankhurst
Richardson was sentenced to six
months' imprisonment, the maximum allowed for destroying an artwork. Shortly
after the incident, she explained the reason of her attack in a statement to
the Women's Social and Political Union, "I tried to destroy the picture of
the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government
for destroying Mrs. Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history."
Damage sustained in the attack by Mary Richardson in 1914
Thank you.
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