María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba the House of Osuna. The Duchess' relationship with famed Spanish painter Francisco Goya and her somewhat eccentric personality have contributed greatly to a continuing interest in her life during the two centuries since her death. Goya executed several well-known portraits of the duchess, most of them during his stay at Sanlúcar de Barrameda (one of the Andalusian country seats of the House of Medina-Sidonia), shortly after the death of her husband, the Duke of Alba, who was also Duke of Medina Sidonia, in 1796. Goya's accompaniment of the recently widowed Duchess combined with certain innuendo expressed in his portraits of
Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba María del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva, 18th Duchess of Alba, GE, OIC, OSH, DOA, OAX, OSG, OPC (28 March 1926 – 20 November 2014), was head of the House of Alba and the third woman to hold the dukedom of Alba in her own right. Born at Liria Palace on 28 March 1926, she was the only child of the 17th Duke of Alba (a prominent Spanish politician and diplomat during the 1930s and 1940s) by his wife, María del Rosario de Silva y Gurtubay, 9th Marchioness of San Vicente del