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
Rokeby (poem) a marriage between Wilfrid and Matilda, but this is prevented by Wilfrid's death. Bertram kills his master Oswald to avoid further bloodshed, but is killed in his turn. Philip is reunited with his son, and the young lovers marry. The poem grew out of Scott's friendship with J. B. S. Morritt, an antiquary and Member of Parliament, whose home at Rokeby Park in Teesdale was, Scott felt, unduly short of local legends. With "Rokeby" he attempted to remedy this fault. Scott claimed that the character of Matilda was drawn from his first love, Williamina Belsches, whom he had first met