The Majas of Goyathe naked and the clothedare two of the most iconic works of the Prado Museum and from today they occupy the space “they deserve” in a larger room that they share with a Venus of Titian, a new exhibition proposal presented together with two sketches by the Spanish artist that have hardly been seen until now.
Of the three million visitors who before the pandemic came each year to the Prado Museumexplained this Tuesday its director, Miguel Falomiralmost everyone went to contemplate the Majas of Goyawhich generated public crowds, so it was decided to remove a low wall that has given way to a larger room in which a more panoramic and suggestive approach to these works.
Goya’s two majas can now be seen in a more suitable space and together with Venus recreating with Love and Music by Titian, a work painted around 1555, thus reflecting this composition the decoration that was in one of the cabinets of the Palace of the prime minister of Carlos IV, Manuel Godoy.
In this cabinet were the Majas of Goya along with representations of the goddess of love, such as the Venus of the Mirror of Velazquez, which is now displayed in National Gallery of Londonand one by Titian in a small copy.
With this contextual composition, based on Titian’s Venus and an 18th century sculpture, it is also about making “a nod” to the fountains from which Goya drankFalomir has indicated.
This composition also makes it possible to highlight the novel and modern character of the Majas of Goya “stripped of mythological references”, has indicated the conservative Gudrun Maurer.
But the balconies of these spaces directed towards the Paseo del Prado and the Botanical Garden to allow the entry of natural light creating a brighter atmosphere and the walls have been painted in a warmer tone instead of the previous “dreary” gray, the director of the art gallery has said.
This new exhibition space has been joined in an adjoining room by the first two preparatory sketches that Goya made for the painting on the altar The preaching of Saint Bernardino of Siena before Alfonso V of Aragonintended for one of the chapels of the new Royal Basilica of San Francisco el Grande in Madrid.
Owned by the Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno, the first of the sketches was exhibited twice, in 1900, in Madrid and London, while the second is presented to the public for the first time.
These two sketches were those made by Goya for the “great pictorial competition” that led to the commission for the painting of the basilica’s altar in 1781 and allow us to discover the artist’s preparatory process.
In this room you can also see his crucified christfrom 1780, which earned Goya admission to the San Fernando Royal Academy of Arts, in addition to three other sketches of altar paintings for the cathedrals of Toledo and Seville.
Two other rooms continue the journey through the portraits painted by Goya from the 1780s to 1800, showing the panorama of clients who sought out the artist who became the most important court portraitist.
This is one of the actions that the Prado Museum plans to develop this year contextualizing their works and recovering its relationship with the cityaccording to its director, who has indicated that although the number of visitors is recovering, it is not occurring as quickly as it was before the last wave of the pandemic.
Source: Eluniverso
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