La Leocadia (Spanish: Doña Leocadia) or The Seductress (Spanish: Una Manola)[1] are names given to a mural by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, completed sometime between 1819–1823, as one of his series of 14 Black Paintings. It shows Leocadia Weiss, his maid and likely his lover. She is dressed in a dark, almost funeral maja dress and leans against what is either a mantelpiece or burial mound as she looks outward at the viewer with a sorrowful expression.
La Leocadia was one of the final of the Black Paintings to be completed, a series that he painted, in his seventies at a time when he was consumed by political, physical and psychological turmoil after he fled to the country from his position as court painter in Madrid.
The Milkmaid of Bordeaux, 1825–1827, is the third and final Goya portrait which may depict Leocadia Weiss. This might also be of Leocadia's daughter Rosario.[5] Its colourisation and mood is very similar to the Leocadia Black Painting
The painting's funereal air is established through the shading of the grey background, the colouring of the model's black veil and maja dress, and her sad or nostalgic expression. She is positioned before an open blue sky, with her body slightly leaning against a rock or mound. The mound is topped by a row of small wrought iron rails; some critics have suggested it may represent a burial mound. X-ray shows that the mound may originally have been painted as an open fireplace and the veil a later addition.[6] Leocadia's head rests on her forearm as she looks thoughtfully towards the viewer and is portrayed in a sympathetic manner. The work is illuminated by a yellow light falling on her face, arm and chest. The background shows a blue and white sky emitting an ocher yellowish noon-light reminiscent of one of his final works, The Milkmaid of Bordeaux.
The painting contains a sense of peace and an air of reconciliation absent in the other works from the series.[7] Writer Juan José Junquera wrote that the work may represent a personification of Melancholy, or given the relationship between artist and model, "the symbol of the fire of love and of the home and the presentiment of coming death".[6] According to Robert Havard, her confident stare and maja dress may be indications of the earlier charge against her of adultery.[1]
Leocadia Weiss
As with any of the paintings from the series, the current title was not Goya's own, and he never mentioned or wrote about any of them. The picture probably depicts Leocadia Weiss, (née Zorrilla, 1788–1856)[8][9] the artist's maid, younger by 35 years and distant relative,[10] although this identity has been contested. Leocadia was probably similarly looking to Goya's first wife Josefa Bayeu, to the extent that one of his well-known portraits bears the (later) cautious title Josefa Bayeu (or Leocadia Weiss).[11] While Junquera describes the identification of Leocadia as "more romantic ... than a certainty",[6] the work bears strong resemblance to a 1805 Goya portrait more or less accepted to be of her, and which was left in her possession following his death.
Francisco Goya, It is not known whether this 1805 Goya portrait is of his wife Josefa Bayeu or mistress Leocadia Weiss.
Leocadia and her daughter, Rosario, lived with and cared for Goya after Bayeu's death.[7] She stayed with him in the Quinta del Sordo villa until 1824. Sometime in 1824, Goya lost faith in, or became threatened by, the restored Spanish monarchy's anti-liberal political and social stance and abandoned Spain to live in France until his death in 1828. Leocadia followed him with Rosario and stayed until his death.[9]
Not much is known about her beyond that she had a fiery temperament. It is known that Leocadia had an unhappy marriage with a jeweller, Isidore Weiss, but had been separated from him since 1811 after he had accused her of "illicit conduct". She had two children before that time and bore a third, Rosario, in 1814 when she was 26. Isidore was not the father, and it has often been speculated – although with little firm evidence – that the child belonged to Goya.[12] There has been much speculation that Goya and Weiss were romantically linked, and that in this work, she is shown as his widow mourning at his tomb. Others believe the affection between them was platonic and sentimental.[6]
From her representations it has been assumed that she was striking looking – if not pretty – and probably in her early 30s at the time of this portrait. She had a strong fiery character; based on Goya's letters, her manner often upset him. Despite the sentiment expressed in a letter in which Goya sent her "a thousand kisses and a thousand things", Leocadia was left nothing in his will.[13] Mistresses were often omitted in such circumstances. His son Javier, who inherited a large amount of his father's inventory and unsold paintings, but had refused to visit him in Bordeaux, gave her 1,000 francs and pieces of furniture from the home she had shared with his father. She wrote to a number of his friends to complain of her exclusion and that Javier had stolen silverware and pistols from her home. Unfortunately for her, many of her friends were Goya's and by then old men and had died, or died before they could reply.[14]
In destitution, she moved into rented accommodation, and she passed on her copy of the Caprichos for free. She also sold The Milkmaid of Bordeaux —for which Goya had told her not to accept less than 'one ounce of gold'— to the Count of Mugurino, but the price she received is lost.[14] Her French pension was cut off shortly after. She possessed a number of Goya's drawings, which she auctioned in 1849; however, again, it is unknown how much she received for any of them.[15]
^The male/female counterpoint can be further seen between individual works in the series, most especially between Men Reading and Man Mocked by Two Women. See Licht (1979) p. 167
El Greco: The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest – Adoration of the Shepherds – Doña María de Aragón Altarpiece – Annunciation – Christ Carrying the Cross – The Fable – The Flight into Egypt – Holy Face of Jesus – Holy Trinity – Julián Romero and Saint Julian – Portrait of a Doctor – Portrait of a Gentleman – Portrait of a Young Nobleman – Portrait of an Elderly Man – Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman – Portrait of Jerónimo de Cevallos – Portrait of Rodrigo Vázquez de Arce – Saint Andrew and Saint Francis – Saint Anthony of Padua – Saint Bernardino of Siena[1] – Saint James the Great – Saint John the Evangelist – Saint Paul – Saint Sebastian – Saint Thomas the Apostle – Holy Trinity – The Saviour – Virgin Mary
Luna: The Death of Cleopatra
Maíno: Adoration of the Magi – Portrait of a Gentleman – The Recovery of Bahía de Todos los Santos
Murillo: Adoration of the Shepherds(1650) – Aranjuez Immaculate Conception – The Christ Child and the Infant John the Baptist with a Shell – Christ on the Cross(1675, 1677) – The Conversion of Saint Paul – The Good Shepherd – The Holy Family with a Little Bird – The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial – The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables – The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew – Our Lady of the Rosary – The Patrician's Dream – Rebecca and Eleazar
Pradilla: Doña Joanna the Mad
Ribera: Jacob's Dream – Democritus – Isaac and Jacob – Ixion – Tityos – The Martyrdom of Saint Philip – The Blind Sculptor
Sánchez Gallque: The Mulattos of Esmeraldas[2]
Velázquez: Las Meninas – The Triumph of Bacchus – Las Hilanderas – The Surrender of Breda – Mars Resting – Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV – Equestrian Portrait of Elisabeth of France – Equestrian Portrait of Prince Balthasar Charles – Equestrian Portrait of Philip III – Equestrian Portrait of Margarita of Austria – Equestrian Portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares – Adoration of the Magi – Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan – Christ Crucified – Coronation of the Virgin – View of the Garden of the Villa Medici – Prince Balthasar Charles as a Hunter – Portrait of the Infante Don Carlos – Doña Antonia de Ipeñarrieta y Galdós and Her Son Don Luis – The Jester Barbarroja – The Jester Calabacillas – The Jester Don Diego de Acedo – The Jester Don John of Austria – Portrait of Francisco Lezcano – Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress – Portrait of Maria Anna – Portrait of Juan Martínez Montañés – The Nun Jerónima de la Fuente – Portrait of Pablo de Valladolid – Portrait of Philip IV in Armour – Portrait of Mariana of Austria – Portrait of Sebastián de Morra
Zurbarán: Agnus Dei – The Death of Hercules – The Defence of Cádiz Against the English – Hercules and the Hydra – Hercules Separates Mounts Calpe and Abylla – Hercules Fighting the Nemean Lion – Saint Elizabeth of Portugal – Saint Luke Painting the Crucifixion – Saint Peter Nolasco's Vision of Saint Peter the Apostle – Still Life with Pots – The Vision of Saint Peter Nolasco
Bouts: Triptych with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin
Bruegel the Elder: The Triumph of Death – The Wine of Saint Martin's Day – Excursion in the Countryside of Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia – Life in the Countryside – The Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in the Mariemont Park(with de Momper) – Landscape(with de Momper) – The Five Senses(with Rubens)
van Dyck: Self-portrait with Sir Endymion Porter – The Betrayal of Christ – The Brazen Serpent – Diana and a Nymph Surprised by a Satyr – Saint Rosalia – The Crowning with Thorns
van Hemessen: The Surgeon
Francken the Younger: The Sciences and the Arts
Jordaens: Apollo as Victor over Pan – Meleager and Atalanta – The Painter's Family
Memling: Adoration of the Magi
Mengs: Portrait of José Nicolás de Azara
de Momper: Landscape with Sea and Mountains – A Farm – Flemish Market and Washing Place – Landscape with Skaters – The Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in the Mariemont Park(with Brueghel the Elder) – Landscape(with Brueghel the Elder)
Rubens: The Judgement of Paris(1638) – The Three Graces – Adoration of the Magi – The Dance of the Villagers – Diana and Callisto – Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma – The Fall of Man – The Garden of Love – The Birth of the Milky Way – The Rape of Europa – The Rape of Ganymede – Saint George and the Dragon – Saturn – The Triumph of the Church – Deucalion and Pyrrha – The Five Senses(with Brueghel the Elder)
Lorrain: Landscape with St Paula of Rome Embarking at Ostia – The Ford – Landscape with St María de Cervelló – Landscape with the Burial of St Serapia – Landscape with the Finding of Moses – Landscape with the Temptation of St Anthony – Landscape with Tobias and Raphael
Poussin: Parnassus – Landscape with Three Figures – Saint Cecilia
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Media related to Manola (La Leocadia) by Goya at Wikimedia Commons