Date : 1804
Material : Oil on canvas
| Item 13 on 17
European Painting
Painting (Portrait)
Area related
Spain
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| Description |  |
Known for her dissolute lifestyle, the Marquesa died at the age of forty-three, three years after this portrait was made. An English visitor to Spain once described her as "very profligate and loose in her manners and conversations, and scarcely admitted into female society ... and said to boast of her nocturnal revels."
The splendor of this portrait of the Marquesa de Santiago (died 1807) rests on Goya's expressionistic handling of paint. While contemporary portraitists sought to convey ideal beauty with a highly finished technique, Goya here used broad brushstrokes to define the deep, dark landscape and thickly applied paint to simulate the gold braid on the marquesa's sleeve and the lace of her mantilla.
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