Rokeby Venus other works by Velázquez and was probably deliberate. The painting was given a major cleaning and restoration in 1965–66, which showed it to be in good condition, and with very little paint added later by other artists, contrary to what some earlier writers had asserted. Paintings of nudes and of Venus by Italian, and especially Venetian, artists were influences on Velázquez. However, Velázquez's version is, according to the art historian Andreas Prater, "a highly independent visual concept that has many precursors, but no direct model; scholars have sought them in vain". Forerunners include Titian's various depictions of Venus, such as
Sleeping Venus (Carracci) Sleeping Venus (Carracci) Sleeping Venus (also known as Sleeping Venus with Putti) is a c. 1603 painting by Annibale Carracci held by the "Musée Condé" in Chantilly, Oise, France. This oil painting measures 190x328cm. It depicts Venus sleeping with her arm above her head as putti frolic around her. Carracci painted "Sleeping Venus" for Odoardo Farnese. Giovanni Battista Agucchi wrote an ekphrasis of this painting that Carlo Cesare Malvasia included in his book "Life of the Carracci". In "The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects", Giovanni Pietro Bellori wrote a description of the painting that paraphrases Agucchi's ekphrasis