Rokeby Venus with blond hair, Velázquez's Venus is a brunette. The female figure can be identified as Venus because of the presence of her son, Cupid. Venus gazes into a mirror held by Cupid, who is without his usual bow and arrows. When the work was first inventoried, it was described as "a nude woman", probably owing to its controversial nature. Venus looks outward at the viewer of the painting through her reflected image in the mirror. However, the image is blurred and reveals only a vague reflection of her facial characteristics; the reflected image of the head is much larger than
Thomas de Rokeby (died 1356) Thomas de Rokeby (died 1356) Sir Thomas de Rokeby (died 1356 or 1357) was a soldier and senior Crown official in fourteenth-century England and Ireland, who served as Justiciar of Ireland. He had considerable early success in restoring law and order in Ireland, which was presumably the reason for his appointment as Justiciar, but he was recalled to England after the military situation deteriorated. He was later re-appointed to the office of Justiciar, and returned to Ireland to take up office shortly before his death. The Rokebys were a prominent landowning family from Mortham in North Yorkshire; Thomas was probably