Naked Maja (postage stamps)
The Naked Maja is a philatelic name for three postage stamps of Spain of 1930 depicting the La maja desnuda painting (1800) by Francisco de Goya (1746–1828). They are part of a set marking the anniversary of the death of this Spanish artist, and are sometimes incorrectly considered the world's first postage stamp with nudes.
Scott#397
Scott#398
Scott#399
Portrait of Francisco de Goya, 1826 (Scott#387)
The Naked Maja or The Nude Maja is an oil-on-canvas painting made around 1797–1800 by the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya, and is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. It portrays a nude woman reclining on a bed of pillows, and was probably commissioned by Manuel de Godoy, to hang in his private collection in a separate cabinet reserved for nude paintings. Goya created a pendant of the same woman identically posed, but clothed, known today as La maja vestida, also in the Prado, and usually hung next to La maja desnuda. The subject is identified as a maja or fashionable lower-class Madrid woman, based on her costume in La maja vestida.
La maja desnuda
La maja vestida, c. 1803. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Diego Velázquez, Rokeby Venus, c. 1647–51. National Gallery, London.
Goya, The Inquisition Tribunal, c. 1808–12. Goya detested the inquisition and depicted it in harsh terms a number of times, and satirised it in works such as his c. 1820–1823 Witches' Sabbath.