Author
Francisco Goya
Movement / period
Romanticism
Medium
painting
Location
Museo del Prado, Madrid
In 1814, the Spanish Inquisition summoned Goya to explain the nude version; the charges were "obscene paintings," and the investigation nearly ended his career at age 68.
Highlights
Facts & legends
- The Clothed Maja and its nude twin were painted for Manuel Godoy, the Spanish prime minister and rumored lover of Queen Maria Luisa — a man powerful enough to own scandalous art and foolish enough to let the Inquisition find it.
- In 1814, the Spanish Inquisition summoned Goya to explain the nude version; the charges were "obscene paintings," and the investigation nearly ended his career at age 68.
- Both Majas are almost identical in composition and size (95 × 190 cm), suggesting Goya designed them as a pair from the start — possibly to be displayed in a hinged frame that could flip between clothed and nude.
- X-ray analysis of the Nude Maja revealed a different face underneath — the woman in the original sketch had a rounder, softer face before Goya repainted it into the sharper, more confrontational one we see today.
- The identity of the model has never been confirmed: candidates include the Duchess of Alba, Pepita Tudo (Godoy's mistress), and a professional model — but Goya himself never said a word.
- After Godoy's fall from power in 1808, the French seized his collection; the two Majas eventually ended up at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes and then at the Prado, where they hang together to this day.
More details Why clothes make this maja more modern rather than modest, how the paired canvases reached powerful Manuel Godoy, and why neither the Duchess of Alba nor Pepita Tudó can be named with confidence.
Dressed, not modest
The direct gaze defeats costume
Yellow jacket, trousers and sash identify a fashionable Madrid maja, yet the same pose and steady gaze preserve intimacy.
Faster, brighter brushwork makes clothing an active surface rather than concealment.
The sitter is unknown
Two legends lack documentary proof
The Duchess of Alba and Godoy's lover Pepita Tudó have both been proposed. Prado inventories never name the woman.
Anonymity keeps the painting from collapsing into society gossip.
Two separate canvases
This is not clothing painted over a nude
The nude dates about 1797–1800 and the clothed version 1800–07; head, arms and shoulders differ slightly.
No documented mechanism proves the popular story of instantly revealing one behind the other.
Found in Godoy's collection
The first inventory already paired them
Both appear in the 1808 inventory after Manuel Godoy's fall and were called “gypsies” in 1813.
His private cabinet explains the pairing better than later romance, though the commission remains uncertain.
Seized by the Inquisition
Censorship bound the two works together
The pair was withheld by the Inquisition, returned to the Academy in 1836 and entered the Prado in 1901.
An attempt to hide the modern nude ultimately strengthened the fame of both versions.
Official sources
Where to check
- Official institution site Museo del Prado
- Official collection / archive Museo del Prado
- The Clothed Maja: catalogue and provenanceMuseo del Prado
- The paired Naked MajaMuseo del Prado
Visual context
