Voces del Prado

The Countess of Chinchón. Three Goyas for the price of one

Carmen Garrido Pérez, Head of the Technical Office, 1982-2012

The Countess of Chinchón is a fascinating painting and the X-ray tells a great story.
And it came as a surprise. I think it was the biggest surprise as a document. I remember it was late on a Friday. The presentation of the painting, which was going to be purchased, was scheduled for Monday. I remember before leaving we prepared the documents, right at the end.
We could see that in two parts of the picture the painting was coming up. The painting came up because of the thick layers. So we did an X-ray. When we were developing it we started to see some legs and heads. And it turns out there were three characters: three Goyas, one right over the other. There was the Duke of Alba, Cayetana's husband, and then Godoy and the Duke of Haro. The canvas was very good, the same canvas used in the "2nd and 3rd of May" paintings. Apparently Goya used the painting in his study, he decided to paint Godoy taking advantage of one of the legs and then painting another one. For me it's something incredible, but when you see that the three legs and the heads are looking the other way, you have to turn the painting around. We were so impressed that we decided to close shop and go home. At the time we thought, Come Monday, God will shed light on us.
It was fantastic. I told Rajoy, the minister of Culture and Education at the time, "We've bought three paintings for the price of one." You can be taken away on your reveries looking at this painting, knowing there are three superimposed portraits. We have often found one painting over a previous painting, a Mariana of Austria painted over Philip IV. The X-ray will show you Philip IV and his moustache. There are scores of amusing anecdotes, but this one was priceless.