Venus of Poetry

In Venus of Poetry, Julio Romero de Torres painted in 1913 an allegory in which the figure of Venus is associated with the singer Raquel Meller, while the Guatemalan writer Enrique Gómez Carrillo also appears portrayed alongside her. The naked woman lies on a bed with white sheets and wears a black lace mantilla over her head. She looks straight at the viewer with a provocative smile, an attitude that departs from the more restrained way such subjects were usually treated. Near her feet lies a rose, a flower linked to beauty and passionate love. Gómez Carrillo holds a sheet of paper on which the painter's signature can be seen, a detail that also presents the work as a statement of authorship. In the background, at the center of the composition, a fountain and a Renaissance-style gate stand between rows of trees, and further away run the Guadalquivir river and the city of Córdoba, a setting that links the painting to the Andalusian landscape the artist knew well. Some experts believe the main source of inspiration was Titian's Venus and the Music, which reveals the painter's dialogue with the Venetian tradition of the nude.

Painter

Julio Romero de Torres

Date

1913

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

93 × 154 cm

Museum

Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, Bilbao

Genre

nude

Depicts

gaze towards the viewer

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