Venus (film) warms up to him when he starts interacting with her. He takes her to the National Gallery in London to view his favourite painting, the "Rokeby Venus", by the Spanish artist Diego Velázquez. Jessie had expressed interest in modelling (Maurice initially mishears this as "yodelling") and Maurice arranges for Jessie to model nude for an art class. As a result of Jessie posing for the art class, and inspired by his favourite painting, Maurice decides to give Jessie the nickname "Venus". Maurice and Jessie develop a passive/aggressive relationship over the course of the film. Maurice is forward in terms of
Rokeby Venus "Venus and Cupid with a Partridge", "Venus and Cupid with an Organist" and notably the "Venus of Urbino"; Palma il Vecchio's "Reclining Nude"; and Giorgione's "Sleeping Venus", all of which show the deity reclining on luxurious textiles, although in landscape settings in the latter two works. The use of a centrally placed mirror was inspired by the painters of the Italian High Renaissance, including Titian, Girolamo Savoldo and Lorenzo Lotto, who used mirrors as an active protagonist, as opposed to more than merely a prop or accessory in the pictorial space. Both Titian and Peter Paul Rubens had already painted