Rokeby Venus may have commissioned himself, "The Nude Maja" and "The Clothed Maja". These bear obvious compositional similarities with Velázquez's "Venus", although unlike Velázquez, Goya clearly painted his nude in a calculated attempt to provoke shame and disgust in the relatively unenlightened climate of 18th-century Spain. "Venus" was brought to England in 1813, where it was purchased by John Morritt for £500 (£ in 2019), and on the advice of his friend Sir Thomas Lawrence. Morritt hung it in his house at Rokeby Park, Yorkshire—thus the painting's popular name. In 1906, the painting was acquired for the National Gallery by the newly
Rokeby Venus codes of pictorial decorum would not easily permit a known lady to be painted in this way". For Spaniards of the 17th century, the issue of the nude in art was tied up with concepts of morality, power, and aesthetics. This attitude is reflected in the literature of the Spanish Golden Age, in works such as Lope de Vega's play "La quinta de Florencia", which features an aristocrat who commits rape after viewing a scantily clad figure in a mythological painting by Michelangelo. In 1632, an anonymous pamphlet—attributed to the Portuguese Francisco de Braganza—was published with the title "A copy