On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P02800
- Author
- Carreño de Miranda, Juan (Spanish)
- Title
- “The Monster”, nude, or Bacchus
- Chronology
- Ca. 1680
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 165 cm x 108 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- Yes
- Entrance
- DONACION
- Procedence
- Donation by the Baron of Forna, 1939
A portrait of Eugenia Martínez
Vallejo, nude and adorned with
grape leaves and grape clusters,
making this an allusion to Bacchus,
the Roman god of wine.
In 1680, this girl was taken to the
court to be exhibited because of
her extraordinary proportions. Far
from its current negative
connotations, this must be
understood in terms of the taste
for freaks of nature passed down
from the sixteenth century and
still present in the seventeenth,
when buffoons and different
entertaining personages lived at
the Palace in order to amuse the
Monarchs and their children.
Despite its explicit nudity, this
portrait plays with appearances and
eliminates the monstrous aspect of
the girl by disguising her,
although it also deliberately seeks
a contrast with the companion work,
Eugenia Martínez Vallejo, “the
Monster,” dressed (P646), which is
also at the Prado Museum.
These two works were listed
together in royal inventories until
the 1701 inventory of the Zarzuela
Palace. King Fernando VII
(1784-1833) later gave the nude
portrait to the painter, Juan
Gálvez. In 1871, it appeared among
the works belonging to the infante
Sebastián Gabriel de Bourbon
(1811-1875).
Location on the map
