Rokeby Venus as well as classical sculptures known to Velázquez, of which casts were made for Madrid. These were the "Sleeping Ariadne" now in the Pitti Palace, but then in Rome, of which Velázquez ordered a cast for the Royal collection in 1650–51, and the Borghese Hermaphroditus, a sleeping hermaphrodite (picture to the right above), now in the Louvre, of which a cast was sent to Madrid, and which also emphasises the curve from hip to waist. However, the combination of elements in Velázquez's composition was original. The "Rokeby Venus" may have been intended as a pendant to a sixteenth-century Venetian painting
Rokeby Preparatory School school. A year later numbers had increased sufficiently to warrant a larger premises, so the school was moved to another house known as "Rokeby" (at no. 17, The Downs) in 1879 – a site now occupied by Hall School Wimbledon. When the Association of Preparatory Schools was founded in 1892 (a precursor to the current IAPS), Rokeby was one of the first members. In 1965 the then owner of the school stated his intent to close it, and a group of parents decided that it should be rescued. Rokeby Educational Trust Limited, a charity, was set up in 1966 to