Voces del Prado

Goya's Majas

Francisco Martín Ortiz, Administrative Technician (copies), 1966-2015

There's something I've always said. I understand that where the Majas are right now is where they ought to be, but when I started out at the Prado Museum they were in Hall 32, the hall at the end of the central gallery, where The Family of Charles IV is located. I think The Family of Charles IV is the only painting or one of the few pictures that remains in the same spot where it was hanging when I got here. All the rest of the pictures have been shifted around. That is where the Majas used to be, on the sides: The Nude Maja and The Clothed Maja. It is one of the nicest halls in the Prado Museum, and that's where the Majas used to be. Now they are too close together; they used to be separated. In those days there could be a group looking at The Nude Maja while another group focused on The Clothed Maja. There used to be a circular bench where people could sit down to admire the two pictures, that's where the Majas, in my opinion, were at an extraordinary location.
Goya's tapestry cartoons were on the ground floor, in the area that is now dedicated to Hieronymus Bosch, and that where the Majas were in the period under Xavier de Salas. I do remember that when he was the director they put some red velour on the walls, which was quite striking, some publications even called it outrageous, stating that you were supposed to look at the paintings rather than such red walls, but we got used to it, it was quite nice, and that was how the Majas were displayed for quite a few years.