The Nude Maja was the first in a two painting series, the second of which was The Clothed Maja, respectively. It is said to be the first painting in which female pubic hair is visible, making it totally profane at the time. In 1813, the Spanish Inquisition confiscated both of the paintings as obscene, returning them to the Academy of Fine Arts in 1936, after Goya's death.
Ava Gardner said in her biography that Tony Franciosa was a very dedicated actor devoted to the method. Before a scene begins, he was standing in a corner of the set, and seemed to choke and nearly vomited to help him to be in his character.
Kirk Douglas, who had memorably played Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956), was considered for the role of Goya as were Paul Newman, Laurence Olivier, and previous Ava Gardner leading man (The Great Sinner (1949), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)) Gregory Peck.
After working - most unhappily - on ''Naked Maja'', director Henry Koster and screenwriter Norman Corwin would reunite for The Story of Ruth (1960), the next project for each.
The nude painting seemed to create as much of a furore in 1959 as it did in 1813. On 15 June 1959 in Washington, the US Postal Service ruled that postcards of The Naked Maja were obscene and must not be sent by mail. US distributor United Artists had been planning to send out 2000 of the postcards to promote the film. At the same time in Germany, the public prosecutor for Munich ordered all of the film posters to be confiscated. In July 1959 the Netherlands authorities banned any publicity that involved showed the painting. Oblivious to all of this, the British Board of Film Censors passed the film with a "U" certificate, suitable for all ages. It opened at the Empire, Leicester Square on 27 August 1959 where it lasted a highly disappointing one week. M-G-M handled the UK distribution and generally released The Naked Maja at normal prices on 8 November 1959.