La maja desnuda

La maja desnuda

Artist	Francisco Goya
Year	circa 1797–1800
Type	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	97 cm × 190 cm (38 in × 75 in)
Location	Museo del Prado, Madrid

La maja desnuda (known in English as The Naked (or Nude) Maja) is an oil on canvas painting by the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, portraying a nude woman reclining on a bed of pillows. It was executed some time between 1797 and 1800, and is sometimes said to be the first clear depiction of female pubic hair in a large Western painting^[1]. The painting is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

One of a pair

La maja vestida, ca. 1803.

Goya created another painting of the same woman identically posed, but clothed, entitled La maja vestida (The Clothed Maja); also in the Prado, it is usually hung next to La maja desnuda. The identity of the model and why the paintings were created are still unknown. Both paintings were first recorded as belonging to the collection of Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy, Duke of Alcudia, and it has been conjectured that the woman depicted was his young mistress. It has also been suggested that the woman was María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva y Álvarez de Toledo, 13th Duchess of Alba, with whom Goya is rumored to have been romantically involved and did complete known portraits of. However, many scholars have rejected this possibility, including Australian art critic Robert Hughes in his 2003 biography, Goya. Many agree that Pepita Tudó is a more likely candidate. Others believe the woman depicted is actually a composite of several different models.

In 1815, the Spanish Inquisition summoned Goya to reveal who commissioned him to create the "obscene" La maja desnuda, and he was consequently stripped of his position as the Spanish court painter. If Goya gave an explanation of the painting's origin to the Inquisition, that account has never surfaced. Two sets of stamps depicting La maja desnuda in commemoration of Goya's work were privately produced in 1930, and later approved by the Spanish Postal Authority. That same year, the United States government barred and returned any mail bearing the stamps.

See also

• Femme nue couchée by Gustave Courbet
• The Rokeby Venus by Diego Velázquez

Notes

References

• http://www.abcgallery.com/G/goya/goyabio.html
• http://www.newyorker.com/printables/critics/031103crbo_books1
• http://www.marxist.com/ArtAndLiterature/goya_1.html

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External links

• La maja vestida/La maja desnuda

v • d • e Francisco Goya List of works Selected Works Blind Guitarist (1778) • Crucified Christ (1780) • Maria Teresa de Borbon y Vallabriga (1783) • Spring (or The Flower Girls) (1786–1787) • The Swing (1787) • St Francis Borja at the Deathbed of an Impenitent (1788) • Manuel Osorio de Zuniga (c. 1788) • Self-portrait (c. 1790–1795) • Little Giants (1791–1792) • Portrait of Mariana Waldstein (c. 1792) • Strolling Players (1793) • Yard with Lunatics (1793–1794) • Marquesa de la Solana (c. 1794–1795) • Duchess of Alba (1797) • Countess of Chinchon (1800) • La maja desnuda • Charles IV of Spain and His Family (1800–1801) • La maja vestida • Bartolome Sureda y Miserol (c. 1803–1804) • Isabel de Porcel (1804–1805) • Doña Teresa Sureda (c. 1805) • The Colossus (1808–1812) • Majas on a Balcony (c. 1808–1812) • Time (c. 1810–1812) • Prison Interior (c. 1810–1814) • The Second of May 1808 • The Third of May 1808 (1814) • Unfortunate events in the front seats of the ring of Madrid, and the death of the Mayor of Torrejon (1815–1816) • Burial of the Sardine (c. 1816) • Inquisition Scene (c. 1816) • The Procession (c. 1816) • The Forge (c. 1817) • The Giant (1818) • Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta (1820) • Men Reading (c. 1819–1823) • The Dog (1820–1823) • Fight with Cudgels (1820–1823) • The Great He-Goat or Witches Sabbath (c. 1821–1823) • Leocadia (c. 1821–1823) • Saturn Devouring His Son (c. 1821–1823) • Two Old Men (c. 1821–1823) • Two Old Women Eating from a Bowl (c. 1821–1823) • Two Young People Laughing at a Man (c. 1821–1823) • The Milkmaid (1825–1827) Etchings Los Caprichos The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1797–1798)  • What a sacrifice! (1797–1798) • They say yes and give their hand to the first comer (1797–1798) • Que se la llevaron! (1797–1798) • You who cannot (1797–1798) The Disasters of War (Los desastres de la guerra) Contra el bien general (c. 1810)  • This is worse (c. 1812–1813) • May the rope break! (c. 1815)