The Debt to Mengs: How the Artist Saved the Nude Paintings of the Royal Collections From Burning

El Pais

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The order of Charles III was fulminating: it was necessary to burn all the paintings of the Royal Collections that showed nudity. That included some of the best works in the history of art that are now exhibited in the Prado Museum. The account of how these paintings were saved is vague, because the mandate was signed in 1762, but it was not until 1795, three decades later, when the painter Alejandro de la Cruz, disciple of Antonio Rafael Mengs …