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
The Birth of Venus (Cabanel) liberal teaching". Alexandre Cabanel. "Birth of Venus". http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=%2FThWdC8hIywtPygxFTx5TnQkVn0reA%3D%3D. Alexandre Cabanel, French, 1823-1889. "The Birth of Venus". http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=%2FDFMaiMuOztdLS04ejp4QXsvXQ%3D%3D. Cabanal, Alexandre, French, 1824-1889. "The Birth of Venus". http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=8DlKaFsnKjQ6. The Birth of Venus (Cabanel) The Birth of Venus (French: "Naissance de Venus") is a painting by the French artist Alexandre Cabanel. It was painted in 1863, and is now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. A second and smaller version (85 x 135.9 cm) from ca. 1864 is in Dahesh Museum of Art. A third (106 x 182.6 cm) version dates from 1875; it is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New