Description

In his Arte de la Pintura, Francisco Pacheco left a significant account of Rubens’ second trip to Spain of 1628–29, mentioning some of Rubens’ activities at the court in Madrid where he copied “all the works by Titian belonging to the King”.

An inventory of paintings in the Alcázar dated 1636 and drawn up by order of Philip IV, offers a more precise description of the painting that hung in the king’s bedroom in the Lower Summer Quarters: “An oil painting, of a Venus, with bare breasts, dressed for rising from bed, in red, with a pearl bracelet on her right hand, and a ring on the little finger of her left hand, and Cupid in front of her, naked with a mirror in which she is looking, by the hand of Titian and with a gold and black frame”. The description of this work by Titian that belonged to King Philip II is extremely close to Rubens’ painting.