Baroque : Rokeby Venus
Rokeby Venus or Venus at Her Mirror is Baroque style in c.1647-1651. This is the only surviving example of a female nude by Diego Valazquez. The subject was rare in Spain because it met with the disapproval of the Church is reasons of religious scruple, the female nude was rarely represented in Spanish art.
Firstly, proportion of painting has size 122 cm height and 177 cm width. The unity of painting, the very genesis may have been an act of reflection. The suggestion has been made that it was designed as a harmonious contrast to a nude Venus. The paining is shown nude back of Venus on her bed with her son Cupid, who holds up a mirror for her to look both at herself and at the viewer. The painting is oil technique and mythological painting.
Secondary, similarity and contrast, only the presence of the plumply and innocently deferential Cupid transforms her into a goddess. The painter has moulded her body with infinitely scrupulous and tender gradations of color, white, pink, grey and muted black and red, and the grey-black satin which reflects on her luminous skin itself shimmers with pearly reflections of flesh-tones. Streaks of pink, white and grey loop in ribbons around the ebony frame of the mirror. Even more astonishing is the single brushstroke, laden with black paint, tracing the line that runs beneath her body from the middle of the back to below her calf. Both the exact notation of appearance and such free and spontaneous touches are the fruit of lengthy meditation and practice.
Thirdly, emphasis of the painting is known as 'The Rokeby Venus' because it was in the Morritt Collection at Rokeby Park. Venus, the goddess of Love, was the most beautiful of the goddesses, and was regarded as a personification of female beauty. The paining is shown nude back of Venus with her son Cupid, who holds up a mirror for her to look both at herself and at the viewer.
Lastly, in Baroque period has more logic within their thinking on artwork than the past. This painting has more reality color and texture like a natural life rather than the past. Moreover it has clear shade and shadow, so this period has play lighting in painting. The Venus in this painting is very beautiful shape although just see only her back and glimmers of her face in the mirror by oil technique.
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