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Who might have modeled for Francisco Goya’s Naked Maja and Clothed Maja?
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Francisco Goya
Detail of Self-portrait, etching by Francisco Goya from the series Los caprichos, 1799.
The identity of the model for Francisco Goya’s The Naked Maja and The Clothed Maja remains a subject of significant historical debate.123
While Goya appears to have used the same model in the same reclining pose and surroundings for both paintings, there is no consensus on who that individual was. Some scholars suggest that the artist may have even utilized several different sitters to complete the works. Because the identity is not definitively known, any specific claims regarding the model remain speculative.132