Venus at the Mirror Peter Paul Rubens

The painting, Venus at the Mirror by Peter Paul Rubens was done between 1614 and 1615. Rubens was known for depicting women in his paintings as voluptuous figures (now termed as Rubenesque), thus the more rounded shape of Venus in contrast to the usual slender figures used to depict the Goddess. Venus in this painting is not wearing the usual mythological props that were usually seen on her, like jewelry, flowers and myrtle. The view of a nude figure from the back and with her knees tucked was a common erotic motif in Antiquity and was used by Rubens in his painting to show a different feeling towards the Goddess. The presence of Cupid, the son of Venus, is the only indication that the female figure was Venus. Its only feature that conforms to the usual depiction of the goddess is her hair color and beauty. This lack of mythological details gave historians the idea that Rubens may have not intended to portray Venus herself but an image of self-absorbed beauty and vanity. Venus African maid (Africans were the usual slaves of the whites at that time) fondles with her hair, which seems to further encourage her vanity. Cupid holds out a mirror to Venus while she gazes into her reflection and out to the viewer of the painting. This is a common image done by other artists like Titian in his painting Venus with a Mirror and Diego Velasquez in his Rokeby Venus, although the image on the reflection is illogical because of the angle of the figures face and the mirror. The psychological effect of this image which makes it looks normal to the eye of the viewer is now called the Venus effect.