The Rokeby Venus

The only female nude by Velázquez that survives, rare in the Spain of the Inquisition. Her face in the mirror is a blur, so she stays nobody in particular.

It takes its name from Rokeby Park in Yorkshire, where it hung in the 19th century. Bought for the nation in 1906, it was slashed with a meat cleaver in 1914 by the suffragette Mary Richardson; the cuts were mended so well they hardly show. Stand before it in 3D ›