The naked maja

The Naked Maja is one of the most famous works of Francisco de Goya. The painting is a commissioned work painted before 1800, in a period that would be between 1790 and 1800, the date of the first documented reference to this work. It was then paired with La maja dressed, dated between 1800 and 1808, probably at the request of Manuel Godoy, since it is known that they were part of a cabinet in his house.

In both paintings, the same beautiful woman is portrayed in full body, lying peacefully on a bed and looking directly at the observer. Although it is not a mythological nude, but a real woman, a contemporary of Goya, and even in her time it was called The Gypsy , the first references to the painting refers to a Venus.

The temporal primacy of The Naked Maja indicates that at the time of being painted, the painting was not intended to form a pair.

It has been speculated that the sitter is the Duchess of Alba, since upon her death in 1802, all her paintings became the property of Godoy, to whom it is known that the two majas belonged., in a similar way to what happened with the Venus of the mirror, by Velázquez. However, there is no definitive evidence either that this face belongs to that of the Duchess of Alba or that the Naked Maja could not have reached Godoy by other means, including a direct order to Goya.. It is most likely that the model directly portrayed was Godoy's then lover and later wife, Pepita Tudó.

Analysis

The two majas.

The maja dressed

The naked maja

In the design of this painting the drawing is decisive; For this reason and the predominance of a cold color range, the influence of neoclassicism is noticeable, although Francisco José de Goya goes far beyond such ism.

Although it is located within the aesthetics of neoclassicism, like others by the same painter, this work by Goya is bold and daring for its time, as bold is the facial expression and body attitude of the model, who seems to smile satisfied and happy with your thanks. Furthermore, it is the first (known) work of art in which female pubic hair appears painted, which highlights the eroticism of the composition.

Although she could be a Venus, she is an original and real woman, made of flesh and blood. She looks directly at the viewer and you can see that she is not demure. She is accentuated with her arms under her neck and marking the center of the painting with her pubic hair. The great knowledge that Goya had of human anatomy stands out. The maja rests on a green velvet couch covered by a sheet and a pillow with lace in which the transparencies and tonal gradations stand out.

It is worth highlighting the particular luminosity that Goya gives to the body of the nude, a luminosity that contrasts with the rest of the environment, and along with that luminosity the typical expressiveness that Goya knows how to give to the eyes.

If in Western culture until Goya and for centuries subterfuges were almost always used to represent the naked woman (for example, mythical themes), in The Naked Maja i> we have a real woman.

It is notable that, even within the typical strength of the brushstrokes that characterize Goya, the artist has taken great care in the treatment of fleshings and shading accompanied by the subtle figuration of the fabrics; The coloring is done with a meticulous play of greens that contrasts with whites and pinks, and in this way the maja almost seems suspended through its brightness and delicacy, suspended in a dark space that it illuminates.

History

The history of the work is full of adventures. It is known that initially both paintings, La maja dressed and La maja naked, were owned by Manuel Godoy. In his diary, the academic and engraver of royal currency González de Sepúlveda narrates that on a visit to the Godoy palace in November 1800, in the company of Ceán Bermúdez and the architect Pedro de Arnal, they had seen the painting in a "cabinet [ sic] interior", along with the Venus of the mirror, by Velázquez, and a Venus by Titian, and refers to it as "A nude [Venus] by Goya but without drawing [sic] nor grace in the coloring." Originally, this painting and its "sister", The dressed maja, were called "gypsies" and not "majas". This is how they appear in the inventory carried out in 1808 of the assets of Manuel Godoy, its first owner.

In 1807 Fernando VII confiscated it from Godoy. In 1813 it was taken to the General Kidnapping Depot on Alcalá Street, where it refers for the first time to "a woman dressed as a maja", and later both works were claimed by the Court of the Inquisition for being "obscene paintings". and thus be able to initiate a trial against Goya. From this trial, the painter achieved acquittal thanks to the influence of Cardinal Luis María de Borbón y Vallabriga, but the painting was deposited out of public view until practically the beginning of the century XX. They were kept in the Royal Academy of San Fernando, in a reserved room, with restricted access, where the most daring nude paintings were accumulated. Since 1901 both paintings have been in the Prado Museum.

That such paintings were initially Godoy's possession could reveal the enigma of who the sitter is. Due to the friendship, probably intimate, that Goya maintained with the thirteenth Duchess of Alba, María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva y Álvarez de Toledo, of whom he made several portraits in which the pictorial treatment reveals great affection, and due to many similarities between the duchess and the woman depicted in Las majas (La maja dressed and, especially, La maja naked), it was considered that she was the one portrayed.

In 1845, Louis Viardot published in his work Les musées de Espagne that the person represented is the duchess and, based on this statement, critical discussion has not stopped raising this possibility. Joaquín Ezquerra del Bayo, in his book The Duchess of Alba y Goya, states, based on the similarity of posture and dimensions of the two majas, that they were arranged so that, through an ingenious mechanism, The clothed maja covered the naked one like an erotic toy from Godoy's most secret cabinet. It is known that the Duke of Osuna, in the 19th century, used this procedure with a painting that, by means of a spring, revealed another of a nude.

In any case, the dates and the fact that the works in question were initially in a practically secret collection of Godoy have led to it being considered much more likely that the model directly portrayed was Pepita Tudó, the then lover and more Godoy's later wife. In any case, given certain physical similarities between both ladies, it is likely that Goya, when portraying Pepita Tudó, evoked La Cayetana , as the Duchess of Alba was popularly called, and thus immortalized her.

The naked maja is the source of inspiration for the pose of Manet's Olympia.^{[citation required]}

On June 15, 1930, the Spanish Post Office issued stamps (values of 1, 4 and 10 pesetas) engraved by José Luis López Sánchez-Toda with the motif of La Maja Naked, being the first time that a female nude appeared in philately, with great scandal.

La maja, in the cinema

In 1958, La Maja Naked gave the title to a film about Goya, with romantic overtones, starring Tony Franciosa and Ava Gardner. It was a Franco-Italian co-production, filmed in Italy and directed by Henry Koster. Likewise, La Maja Naked is the protagonist of a scene in the film Volavérunt, by Bigas Luna.