As shown by his picture Rokeby Venus, in which the goddess Venus is lying in bed in a sensuous stance and gazing into a mirror held by her son Cupid, Velazquez was a master at realistically portraying the human body.
Following the arrest of fellow suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, militant feminist Mary Richardson—who later in life rose to become the president of the women’s division of the British Union of Fascists—nearly tore Venus to pieces in 1914.
Despite prior warnings of a potential attack, she entered the National Gallery in London and cut Venus seven times, mostly across the back.
For the act, Richardson received the maximum punishment of six months.
