Venus Verticordia

Venus Verticordia is an oil painting on canvas. The art is a vivid display of a woman whose one breast is visible while the other right breast is cover by the left-hand crossing over the breast while holding an apple. The right-hand contains an arrow-like item pointed towards the heart, and it has a butterfly resting on it.

The painting has rose flowers displayed behind woman, and some are drawn just below her breast. It looks like the modeling woman was lying on roses only that it appears she was standing. The hair of the model on the painting is red/ maroon flowing down her shoulders with a golden halo placed at the crown position with butterflies on it. It's a beautiful piece of art, and surprisingly it took almost six years painting it.

The title "Venus" means the "turner of heart." Dante Gabriel Rossetti translated the original meaning of this painting to turning women’s heart towards virtue. However, people have continuously come up with other translation based on the fact that it’s a nude picture with roses on it. The nude photo, honeysuckle, apple, and roses bring out a sexual effect, and that's why people interpret the image differently.

Dante Gabriel put unimaginable efforts while painting Venus Verticordia. He imported rose flowers from France, yet they were out of season. It made one of Gabriel’s friend, Ruskin to critic the painting first because of roses and secondly his morals towards nude pictures. Alexa Wilding is the model on the picture, but she is remembered as a respectable woman. Thus, it may be only her face that's in the painting.

Venus Verticordia has been sold regularly with the first buyer being William graham who by the way, had other thirty-seven paintings from Dante Gabriel. The art has been exhibited several times, but the latest exhibition was in December 2014. Venus Verticordia was a benchmark against which other Victorian nude pictures were revived. Besides painting the image, Dante composed a poem describing the beauty of the painting. The poem describes the model in picture figuratively in a way that amuses the reader. Venus Verticordia is one of the best work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.