María del Pilar de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba
|
The Most Excellent The Duchess of Alba |
|
|---|---|
|
|
| Spouse(s) | José Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba |
|
Issue
María de la Luz (adopted)
|
|
|
Full name
María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva Álvarez de Toledo y Silva Bazán
|
|
| Noble family | House of Alba |
| Born |
10 June 1762 Madrid, Spain |
| Died | 23 July 1802 (aged 40) Sanlúcar la Mayor, Andalusia, Spain |
Doña María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva-Álvarez de Toledo y Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba de Tormes, Grandee of Spain (full name, see infobox; 10 June 1762 – 23 July 1802), was a Spanish aristocrat and a popular subject of the painter Francisco de Goya y Lucientes.
María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva Alvarez de Toledo became the 13th Duchess of Alba in 1776. Her marriage to José Álvarez de Toledo, 11th Marquis of Villafranca, made her and her husband the wealthiest couple in the Kingdom of Spain; their only rivals to this title were the House of Osuna.
The Duchess' relationship with famed Spanish painter Francisco Goya and her somewhat eccentric personality have contributed greatly to a continuing interest in her life during the two centuries since her death. Goya executed several well-known portraits of the duchess, most of them during his stay at Sanlúcar de Barrameda (one of the Andalusian country seats of the House of Medina-Sidonia), shortly after the death of her husband, the Duke of Alba, who was also Duke of Medina Sidonia, in 1796.
Goya's accompaniment of the recently widowed Duchess combined with certain innuendo expressed in his portraits of her have exacerbated rumors that the two were lovers. Although this has never been confirmed, the sheer number of portraits the artist painted of the duchess certainly suggests, at the very least, a close platonic relationship between the two.
The painting La maja desnuda, executed between 1797 and 1800 by Goya, has also been rumored to portray her. The painting, considered scandalous by Spanish society of the time, depicts a fully nude reclining woman. It, together with a companion piece depicting the same model clothed, La maja vestida, was commissioned by Spanish Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy (the known lover of Spain's queen, María Luisa).
...
Wikipedia