Venus at a Mirror Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

Description of Peter Rubens’ painting "The Toilet of Venus"

Peter Paul Rubens lived and worked during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The main feature of this era was the popularization of the art of the ancient world. That is why in this picture we see the image of the ancient Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus.

The central image of the work is, of course, Venus herself. The artist abandoned the usual image of people facing the audience. So we can see Venus from the back. It’s quite an unusual technique. It was as if the artist had seen enough of the goddess from the front, and decided to show everyone her hidden side. This is the artist’s innovation.

To the image of the goddess did not seem boring, Peter Paul Rubens drew a small mirror, which looks at a young girl. Mirrors played an important role in the Baroque era. They were used by artists to create a kind of illusion, distortion, which gave each work a mysterious, understatement. We can only guess what the goddess looks like from the front. The small mirror is only a clue.

The goddess of love has a ravishing beauty. She is white-skinned, with long golden curls. The dark-skinned maid, who is depicted to the right of the goddess, creates a contrast at work - Venus’ skin literally glows. The African girl helps braid her hair, so she has taken some of the golden hair in her hands.

On the left side of the work, we see an image of an angel. This little, chubby child is holding a mirror into which Venus is admiring. Here, in the painting, the pagan and Christian worlds merge. Venus belongs to the Roman pantheon of gods, the angel to the Christian world.

Venus is depicted completely naked. Only the bottom of her back is slightly covered by a thin white cloth. The girl chose to wear only earrings with a blue stone and a gold bracelet with precious stones on her arm.