Mademoiselle Lange as Venus

Anne-Louis Girodet painted Mademoiselle Lange as Venus around 1798, a vindictive portrait-satire of the actress Anne Françoise Élisabeth Lange who had rejected a previous portrait Girodet had painted of her as unsatisfactory. In revenge, Girodet painted her again as Venus, embedding insulting iconographic elements that contemporary viewers would recognize: the turkey (a symbol of stupidity), the butterfly (inconstancy), and other emblems of the actress's alleged character failings. The painting was exhibited at the Salon of 1799 to great scandal and controversy, demonstrating Girodet's wit and malice in equal measure.

Girodet renders the scene with a cool, porcelain-like finish and classical clarity that belies the painting's satirical intent. The precise Neoclassical technique and mythological setting serve as an ironic frame for the sharp personal attack hidden in the symbolic details.