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
Thomas de Rokeby (died 1356) Thomas de Rokeby (died 1356) Sir Thomas de Rokeby (died 1356 or 1357) was a soldier and senior Crown official in fourteenth-century England and Ireland, who served as Justiciar of Ireland. He had considerable early success in restoring law and order in Ireland, which was presumably the reason for his appointment as Justiciar, but he was recalled to England after the military situation deteriorated. He was later re-appointed to the office of Justiciar, and returned to Ireland to take up office shortly before his death. The Rokebys were a prominent landowning family from Mortham in North Yorkshire; Thomas was probably