Rokeby Venus by Diego Velazquez (jan 17, 1647 – jan 17, 1651)
Description:
Rokeby Venus is also referred to as "The Toilet of Venus", "Venus at her Mirror", "Venus and Cupid". It depicts Venus (goddess of Love and the personification of female beauty) reclining languidly in a sensual pose on her bed, looking into a mirror held by her son Cupid (god of physical love). It is the leading figure during the era of Spanish Baroque art in which Spain was a strong supporter of Catholic Counter-Reformation art and was determined to combat the spread of Protestantism.
The confrontation of the gaze of the figure in painting and the viewer has wide implications in feminist art history regarding sexual politics of the gaze. It is argued that society conditions woman to constantly ‘watch herself’ and to construct her identity through the eyes of the ‘surveyor’ as she becomes the ‘surveyed’. Berger summarises this as: “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.”
Also, during the year 1914, the painting was destroyed by Mary Richardson in order to gain publicity for woman's rights to vote. From our point of view, we believe that since Venus is the icon of normative beauty and feminity, women during the beginning of the 90s era destroy this picture as a symbolic movement in breaking those norms towards women.
