Rokeby Venus 1997, the art historian Peter Cherry suggested that Velázquez sought to overcome the contemporary requirement for modesty by portraying Venus from the back. Even in the mid-18th century, an English artist who made a drawing of the Venus when it was in the collection of the Dukes of Alba noted it was "not hung up, owing to the subject". Another attitude to the issue was shown by Morritt, who wrote to Sir Walter Scott of his "fine painting of Venus' backside", which he hung above his main fireplace, so that "the ladies may avert their downcast eyes without difficulty and
Pardo Venus arm drawn up to support the head and the other resting near the crotch, is essentially the same as that in Giorgione's "Dresden Venus", which after his death in 1510 was completed by Titian. The pose apart, the paintings offer a strong contrast, with the noisy and hectic scene in the "Pardo Venus" completely different from the tranquil and deserted landscape in Dresden. Around 1534 Titian had painted the "Venus of Urbino", and a repetition of this from 1545, perhaps a lost recorded "Venus" sent to Charles V, "was the basis" for the "Venus and Musician" series, which exists in