Backstage of "You Tube" photo shoot after Velazquez painting Venus at her Mirror.

Image inserted in the "Belle" series, http://photonicholas.com/belle-portraits/

Read more about this image here: http://photonicholas.com/portfolio/tube/

Velazquez probably painted only one nude – Venus at her Mirror – and it is remarkable he painted any at all, these were the years of the Spanish Inquisition. Velazquez was rediscovered in the early 19th century as a ‘modern’ – Manet was a great admirer, as were Picasso and Francis Bacon.

The model, Vanessa runs a restaurant with her parents in Castro Caro near Forli and they make their own pasta – hence her rolling pin peaking out from under the pillow. Venus had her mirror, now she gazes at herself, calmly satisfied and serenely vain, in a plasma screen recorded by a video-camera – a closed-circuit Venus and self fulfilling prophecy: she can really be admired on You Tube: