A painting and gender anxieties

Whilst at home today nursing the flu I came across a little book about a painting which at the turn of the twentieths made a very large statement became embroiled gender politics and anxieties of the time.

In London’s national gallery hangs an amazing nude. She belongs to the 17^th Century but looks more like a modern-women. She’s been called the baroque equivalent to a playboy centrefold.

I’m talking about the Rokeby Venus. A painting by Diego Velázquez virtually unknown until about a hundred years ago. It suddenly became famous at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. And when it did emerge, the canvas became the victim of a violent attack.

When the Rokeby Venus was painted 350 years ago in Spain artists who dared to paint nudes faced excommunication, fines, and exile enforced by the Spanish inquisition.

After Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808 the painting was whisked to England where the picture was bought by an art dealer and sold to a Scotsman in Rokeby, thus the title. It remained unseen by the public for 80 years. After financial hardship, the painting was sold again in 1905.  The National Art Collects Fund launched a campaign to save the painting with little luck.

An art lover, none other than the king, Edward the 7^th came to the party. In the National Art Collects fund book (see above) for January 1906 there is a pasted letter with the Buckingham Palace letterhead stating that his Majesty was much interested and promised a contribution of 8000 Pounds plus a loan of 5000 pounds.

The painting became a national icon, and whilst the Rokeby Venus epitomised female beauty, women in Britain were up in arms. They wanted the vote. The painting was attached by a women in support to those held in custody for civil disobedience.