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
Sleeping Venus (Carracci) without citation. Sleeping Venus (Carracci) Sleeping Venus (also known as Sleeping Venus with Putti) is a c. 1603 painting by Annibale Carracci held by the "Musée Condé" in Chantilly, Oise, France. This oil painting measures 190x328cm. It depicts Venus sleeping with her arm above her head as putti frolic around her. Carracci painted "Sleeping Venus" for Odoardo Farnese. Giovanni Battista Agucchi wrote an ekphrasis of this painting that Carlo Cesare Malvasia included in his book "Life of the Carracci". In "The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects", Giovanni Pietro Bellori wrote a description of the painting that paraphrases