The other title of this book is “The Nude Maja.” It is also the title of one of the numerous paintings by Goya displaying dancers. In times of Goya, the word “maja” was used to describe dancers and could be translated as “showy” or “flashy.” Goya made this type the central figure of many of his genre paintings, and the dramatist Ramón de la Cruz based most of his sainetes—farcical pieces in one act—upon the customs and rivalries of these women.
