MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / MADRID – Museo del Prado: Maja Desnuda and Maja Vestida, by Francisco Goya

He was born on 1746 in Fuendetodos, Spain. He began his art studies as a teenager (and even spent time in Rome, Italy, to advance his skills). In 1770s, he began to work for Spanish royal court and – in addition to his – commissioned portraits of the nobility, creating works that criticized his era. At first, Goya learned by imitation. He copied the works of great masters, finding inspiration in the works of such artists. In 1779, Francisco Goya won an appointment as a painter to the royal court, but in 1792 he became completely deaf, after suffering from an unknown malady. With Ferdinand VII in power, he kept his position in the Spanish court (despite having worked for Bonaparte). Same size (95 x 190cm) and the same author (Francisco Goya). Same period of construction (around 1800), the same production technique (oil on canvas). Maja Vestida and Desnuda. The pair of paintings is made up of two of the most famous works by Francisco Goya. The first mention of the Maja Desnuda https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-naked-maja/65953b93-323e-48fe-98cb-9d4b15852b18?searchMeta=maja it appears in 1800, in the diary of Pedro González de Sepúlveda. In Spain, the nudity was forbidden by the Church and punished by the Inquisition. That painting was part of the art collection of Manuel Godoy, a powerful man who could escape to those prohibitions. Maja Vestida https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-clothed-maja/a3121efc-6924-454c-8a9f-e4320f26d3d0?searchMeta=maja it was probably built on commission of the man that he could escape the fury of the Holy Office. It remains a mystery around the two paintings: perhaps they were the portraits of the Duchess of Alba, or that of the Nude Maja model was Pepita, the lover of Godoy. In 1807 Godoy falls from grace and his king takes possession of his collection of paintings. The painter avoided a condemnation, but the “obscene” Maja Desnuda was seized and erased from view of anyone (until the early twentieth century). https://www.museodelprado.es/en

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