"... the only Spanish seventeenth-century mythological work that depicts a naked woman. Other European painters who painted female nudes seldom used a back view. Unlike those of Rubens, Annibale Carraci, and Simon Vouet, Velázquez's goddes was based on life study, in part because he had no classical statues and few painted models from which to derive his knowledge of the female body at second hand. The modest back view was chosen yet what could be more provocative than her soft right buttock settled against the gray-blue silk cover of her day bed? As Allan Brahan proved by posing a woman in this position with a child playing Cupid with the mirror,
Venus could not have seen her own reflection with the mirror at that angle, and we would have seen her crict, unless it was concealed by drapery." (emphasis mine)
Source: "Seventeenth-century art & Architecture" by Ann Sutherland Harris
Leftt: "Bar at the Folie Bergère", 1881, by Édouard Manet.
Right: Detail
This is a very famous of Manet's painting.
At the back of the girl there is a mirror showing the scene in front of her and she doesn't seem to pay attention to any particular person or event.
Take a look at her image at the mirror at the right side of the painting. The mirror shows what is parallel to the girl but her back is painted in another angle as if it was another mirror. The man looking at her should also be depicted as if he was facing us.
Manet's solution is far more interesting and accurate than if he had painted it following the mirror's rules. This is far more warm and, why not, realistic? I believe that if we were in front of the girl our heads would turn to see the man.
