In Het Pelsken, how is the Analysis discussed?
Her pose recalls the Venus pudica (lit. 'modest Venus') of Graeco-Roman sculpture, in which the goddess is shown nude as she prepares to bathe, discarding her drapery with one hand, while modestly shielding herself with the other. Another antecedent is Titian's Girl in a Fur, which Rubens knew. He even made a copy of the Titian, having seen it in the collection of Charles I in England. The execution of contrasting soft white flesh and rich dark fur has been praised in both paintings. Michel writes of this effect in the Rubens picture, "The frank black of the pelisse, the red of the carpet, and the brown of the background set off the brown of the background set off the brilliance of the flesh-tints".Unlike Titian, who idealises his figure, Rubens depicts dimpled knees and folds of flesh and combines classicism with realism. Michel sees this as a fault, and writes, "The portrait is too exact, for inelegant forms are faithfully copied. The flesh lacks its former firmness, and clear traces of the compression of the bodice on the torso, and of the garters on the legs with their too perceptible knee-pans may be detected." However, other critics have praised this quality in Rubens; as Andrew Morrall notes, "Neither simply a portrait nor purely an image of a mythological deity, this intensely private work has ironically become one of the most celebrated erotic images in Western art."
Andrew Morrall Venus pudica pelisse Girl in a Fur Charles I