me, when deciding what work to choose for this paper, since I was immediately struck by the unusualness of the “Rokeby Venus”. It was not typical, I believe for a Venus painting, since she was in a private room and with a mirror, not on some God-like landscape, as I have seen her so often in the past. Also I think she is as beautiful as she could be in this work, her body is flawless, with no imperfections. It is amazing how Velazquez showed such a figure of absolute beauty and gave her a mirror so she could see herself, yet made it so she was not looking. I feel that this tactic was well above the typical norm for that time, it made the viewer wonder; can she possibly know how beautiful she really is? The question still lingers even today, was she not looking because she knows, or because she doesn’t. Maybe some paintings don’t always have a clear-cut answer....
