Goya's duchess?

Question

Goya's duchess?

Answer 1

The Spanish Duchess of Alba

Answer 2

Nobody knows for sure, because, among other things, she is wearing a mask in the paintings, but she is assumed to be the Duchess of Alba, whose palace in Seville, we visited last summer.

Answer 3

Her full name was Maria del Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva Alvarez de Toledo, duchess d'Alba. She died of tuberculosis and dengue fever. According to contemporary reports, she was a woman of keen intelligence, beauty, elegance and poise, who also played an important role in Spanish society and did great charitable works. In the famous portrait by Goya, she is seen standing with noble reserve. The Duchess of Osuna turns towards the viewer. Her clothes are in keeping with the fashion initiated by Queen Marie Antoinette in Paris at that time.