La maja desnuda

Around 1797 to 1800, Francisco Goya put brush to canvas and created a painting that would haunt him for years. Known as "La maja desnuda," or "The Nude Maja," it shows a woman lying back against soft pillows, her arms tucked behind her head. She meets our eyes without a hint of shyness. That direct gaze was the real scandal. Earlier painters often dressed up their nudes as goddesses or nymphs to make the subject respectable, but Goya skipped all that. This is just a woman, calm and aware that she is being looked at, and audiences of the time were not ready for such frankness.

The work brought Goya face to face with the Spanish Inquisition, which branded it obscene and demanded to know who had ordered it. Even now, nobody is certain who the woman was. Some believe she was the Duchess of Alba, while others point to a mistress of the man thought to own the painting. Goya also made a clothed companion piece called "La maja vestida," and legend says the two hung together, with the dressed version able to slide aside to expose the nude one behind it.

Goya's talent shows in the warm, glowing skin set against cool greens and pale white linens. He always had a knack for painting people as they truly were, full of character and life, which is why this woman still feels so present and real more than two centuries later.