words: "There is not one hair on the Duchess of Alba's head that does not stir desire! And there is not a woman on earth who has attained, or could attain, the beauty she has attained!"

Goya painted her for the first time in 1795, when she was in her thirty-third year, with a pair of eyes that struck men down, and clouds of jet-black hair upon her; Goya was then nearing fifty, with a wife and children, and deafness was about to take possession of him.

A little after that Goya painted the greatest of his canvases: "The Naked Maja" (by the word maja is meant: the merry flirt — or a little more than that...!) — and all who saw the picture realized that the woman reclining so seductively on the silken couches was none other than the Duchess of Alba! And when, shortly afterward, another canvas by Goya appeared, of the same woman and in the same pose, only dressed in garments so nearly transparent that they veiled nothing of her charms, the tongues of the court began to wag...! Especially since the duchess used to go to Goya's studio herself, and alone — a thing that was not customary in Spain, and that invited contempt and disapproval.

It is told that the Duke of Alba heard of the nude painting without having seen it; rage took full hold of him, and he rushed off to the insolent artist, sword in hand. But word had already reached Goya's ears that the duke was furious, so he made haste and painted the second canvas; and when the duke came to him, he showed him the new painting, claiming he had painted no other, and insisting that whoever examined the face closely would see that its features did not altogether match the features of the duchess!

When the duke died in 1796, Goya deserted his wife and spent long months with the duchess in her palace. Six years later the duchess died a sudden death — and the tale

A Woman Bathing. Hendrickje as Eva... (Rembrandt)

has it that Queen Maria Luisa, eaten up with envy, poisoned her...! It is also recalled that Goya made a picture portraying Maria

Luisa, and put into her features the ugliest meanings that can pass through an imagination — so that many wondered how