On 10 March 1914, the
suffragette Mary Richardson walked into the National Gallery and attacked Velázquez's canvas with a meat cleaver. Her action was ostensibly provoked by the arrest of fellow suffragette
Emmeline Pankhurst the previous day,
[66] although there had been earlier warnings of a planned suffragette attack on the collection. Richardson left seven slashes on the painting, particularly causing damage to the area between the figure's shoulders.
[17][67] However, all were successfully repaired by the National Gallery's chief restorer
Helmut Ruhemann.
[12]
Richardson was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, the maximum allowed for destruction of an artwork.
[68] In a statement to the
Women's Social and Political Union shortly afterwards, Richardson explained, "I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government for destroying Mrs. Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history."
[67][69] She added in a 1952 interview that she did not like "the way men visitors gaped at it all day long".
[70]
The feminist writer
Lynda Nead observed, "The incident has come to symbolize a particular perception of feminist attitudes towards the female nude; in a sense, it has come to represent a specific stereotypical image of feminism more generally."
[71] Contemporary reports of the incident reveal that the picture was not widely seen as mere artwork. Journalists tended to assess the attack in terms of a murder (Richardson was nicknamed "Slasher Mary"), and used words that conjured wounds inflicted on an actual female body, rather than on a pictorial representation of a female body.
[68] The Times described a "cruel wound in the neck", as well as incisions to the shoulders and back.
[72]
The painting was attacked again on 6 November 2023 by two
Just Stop Oil activists who smashed its protective glass with hammers demanding an end to new oil and gas licences in the UK.
[73][74]
