There's an enormous store of mythology built up around the existence, roles and antics of the Gods. Is it all myth?
Will Fox had been to the Gallery before, of course, as an art lover, but this time it was because he'd been given a project by his tutor. He was an art student, and he had been instructed to paint a series of four portraits of Venus, as modern updates of the classical pictures. This was inspired by the fact that Venus was the subject of the summer exhibition. They had a few of the really well-known images there: Giorgione's Sleeping Venus; a couple of Titian's Venuses, the Urbino and Venus Arising from the Sea (he seemed besotted with her and painted her several times); Rubens' Venus and Adonis; and many other images of the goddess through the ages. And here Will was, standing with a crowd of other gallery goers in front of perhaps the most famous Venus painting of them all: the Birth of Venus by Botticelli, the one with Venus standing on a seashell representing her 'birth' from the waves. He'd been told very firmly not to produce a reproduction but a 'modern interpretation'. How was he going to do that? He was lost for inspiration.
"Come on Venus, you're a goddess," he sighed, "Help me out here, I need an idea..."
From just behind him, where he hadn't noticed her, came a voice in response, startling him.
"Happy to help if I can!"
He turned around. Standing there was a woman, age quite hard to guess but if pushed you'd have said late twenties, dressed relatively conservatively in a modest bright blue blouse and jeans, but clearly something of a beauty. Fairly tall for a woman, slim but with some appealing curves, she had classically good features, long fair hair, and you could see a lively personality shining through her smile and sparkling blue eyes.
"Oh, er, sorry, help how?" Will wasn't always at his most eloquent with strangers, especially attractive women.
"Well, my name is Venus, and you just asked me for help!"
"Oh!" Will felt himself blush, something he always tried hard to suppress. He hadn't realised that he'd actually spoken out loud, he was so caught up in his thoughts.
"It's just, ah, I'm an art student, and I've been set the task of painting a modern interpretation of four classic paintings of Venus. Artists are supposed to have inspiration... I think I left mine at home!"
"I see!" She had an electrifying smile. "I tell you what, if I buy you a coffee, tell me what you need to do and we can see if two heads are better than one!"
"Oh, er, that's really kind, are you sure? That would be great, um, thanks..."
They eased out from the throng in front of the picture, and made their way to the gallery's café. Venus got two Cappuccinos and Will found a free table.
"So, you know my name, what's yours?" Venus said.
"Will... pleased to meet you!"
"Likewise, Will! I have to say you look older than most art students."
"Yeah, I'm 31, which makes me seem really ancient compared with my classmates. Sometimes we don't seem to have a lot in common! They're all into modern art forms, like installation art or digital art or videos, and especially abstract or so-called representative imagery, although I often find it hard to see what they represent! One of my classmates is into building statues from glueing together bits of cardboard boxes! Well, I like old-fashioned painting. That makes it a bit hard too."
"Well, if it's any comfort, I'm definitely in the old-fashioned painting camp! Which art school are you at?"
"The Julius London. It's near Smithfield, do you know it?"
"I've been past it. How come you are only going to art school now, practically a pensioner?" The twinkle in her eye gave the tease away.
He laughed. "That's how the cookie crumbled for me! I've always been into art, but my father was a carpenter, he had a fairly successful small business. He set it up, oh, fifteen or more years ago now, up to then he took any carpentry jobs he could, so he could look after me - my mother had died giving birth to me." Venus made a sympathetic noise. "So when I could, I started helping him and when I left school I had learned enough to start working for him, and we built it up to six staff. Then..." It was still a bit raw.
She put her hand on his. "Tell me only if you want to." He found that he did.
"Dad got sick, and it turned out to be cancer. He lasted about a year. So I inherited the firm, but I'm not a business type, so when I had approaches to buy it I jumped at the chance. So, now I have just about enough money to do what I'd always wanted to do, and become an artist. I've always loved drawing, and I'm told I have a good eye and some talent, but I needed to come to Art School to learn more about painting techniques. Plus of course the thorny issue of how to get your work sold!"
"Good for you! What sort of art will you want to do?"
"I'm not totally sure. I've always liked drawing people, but that's hard to make money with. Better to be a so-called 'corporate artist' and make pretty pictures for boardrooms and hotels. I'll see how it goes, I guess. I can't live on the money from the business for ever, but at least if it doesn't work out I can go back to carpentry."
"Sounds like a good plan. So tell me about this assignment."
"Well..." Will paused, gathering his thoughts. "We've all been set different tasks, but the powers that be will mark the results and they will be part of our exam. Because this exhibition was on, I was set the assignment of painting Venus. I think that's why they told me before the summer holidays, whilst this exhibition is still on, and since I don't have anywhere to go for the holidays I'm minded to get started as soon as I can. I know it's only August and I've got until the end of the Autumn term to hand them in, but I think it will take quite a while to get these paintings right. I've got to make four paintings, which are loosely based on classic works in this exhibition, interpreted in a modern context. I think I know which ones I want to do, but I'm struggling with how to place them in a modern setting. And then there's the problem of finding models... there's barely a painting in the whole exhibition where she's wearing any clothes!"
"I'm sure girls won't have a problem posing for a nice young man like you! So which ones do you want to paint?"
"Well, I think the Rokeby Venus..."
"Ah, Velazquez..."
"Yes, only instead of a mirror, she's holding a mobile phone for a selfie. I'll omit Cupid, I think it's too fraught to have a small child in a modern picture with a nude woman."
"Sounds good... and then?"
"I like Titian's Venus of Urbino, it's very provocative with her lying there, smirking at the viewer, fingers over her pudenda as if about to masturbate, so it would suit a modern audience! I'll make her covered with tattoos."
"I like it! Hey, you seem to have it all worked out - you haven't obtained this coffee by deception have you?" She laughed.
He smiled back. "Hardly... I can't work out what to do with the background in the Venus of Urbino. Titian made it look almost like a painting behind Venus's bed rather than a view through a doorway, and the figures of the women with their backs turned are very strange."
