''The Duchess of Alba and "la Beata"'' (or ''The Duchess of Alba and the Pious Woman''; Spanish: ''La duquesa de Alba y su dueña o La Duquesa de Alba y "la Beata"'') is a small 1795 oil-on-canvas painting by the
Spanish artist
Francisco Goya.
It portrays the Duchess
María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba reaching playfully towards her maid (or ''duena'') Rafaela Luisa Velazquez (known as "la Beata"),
[Morales y Marín, 242] who leans away. María holds a red cord under the chin of the older woman, which seems to scare her as she recoils and leans backwards, her eyes rolled in mock horror,
[Melikian, Souren.]
New View of Goya:His Small Paintings
. '' New York Times'', 23 April, 1994. Retrieved 23 january 2016 her mouth curled in delight. Velazquez props herself up with a walking stick or cane, and bears a wooden
cross in her extended right hand, playfully banishing the Duchess. Both figures wear white dresses; the duchess with black lace and
bodice. The painting is composed of mainly white and black hues applied in broad brush strokes, while the dresses are outlined in touches of livid yellow. The figures are set against a flat, black background which isolates the moment and removes any context.
''The Duchess of Alba and la Beata'' is considered to form part of Goya's "caprichos", and was painted shortly after he fell deaf.
It is signed "Goya in 1795" in the lower right corner. It is in the collection of the
Museo del Prado
The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...
, Madrid, having been acquired from a private collection. Goya portrayed María Cayetana de Silva a number of other times, notably ''
The White Duchess'' of the same year and the 1797 ''
Portrait of the Duchess of Alba
''The Black Duchess'' (also ''Mourning Portrait of the Duchess of Alba'' or simply ''Portrait of the Duchess of Alba'') is a 1797 oil-on-canvas painting by Spanish painter Francisco Goya. The Duchess in the painting is María Cayetana de Silva, ...
''.
See also
*
List of works by Francisco Goya
Notes
Sources
* Connell, Evan S. ''Francisco Goya: A Life''. New York: Counterpoint, 2004.
* Forty, Sandra. 'Francisco De Goya''. TAJ, 2014. ASIN B00USAESNM
*
Hughes, Robert. ''Goya''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
* Morales y Marín, José Luis. ''Goya: a catalogue of his paintings''. Real Academia de Nobles y Bellas Artes de San Luis, 1997
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duchess Of Alba And La Beata
1790s paintings
Portraits by Francisco Goya