Beauty and satire in the Renaissance
about: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/31074834
about: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/320131838
about: DefinedTerm
  alternate name: Painting
about: DefinedTerm
  alternate name: Painting--Belgium--Exhibitions
abstract: "Quinten Massys' An Old Woman ('The Ugly Duchess') is one of the Renaissance's most famous faces. In a fresh review of the iconic image, this book unveils the painting's original context: its status as a pioneering work of satirical art, its debt to Leonardo da Vinci's grotesque drawings, and what it tells us about the period's complex attitudes towards women, age and normative beauty. The painting and its partner, An Old Man, are parodic portraits that mock the supposed lust and vanity of older women. Yet a closer look also reveals a figure defiantly flouting conventions and a painter subverting artistic expectations. The publication traces the eventful afterlife and enduring power of this seminal image: how she gained her nickname 'The Ugly Duchess' and inspired John Tenniel's much-loved illustrations of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), capturing the imagination of generations of readers."-- Provided by publisher.
author: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/310148549
contributor: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/310190155
contributor: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/31022381
contributor: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/31182761
contributor: Person
  alternate name: Metsys, Quentin, 1465 or 1466-1530
creator: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/310148549
language: eng
name: The Ugly Duchess
work example: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/301324998
type: CreativeWork

PropertyValue
property ID: NL-AmRIJ
value: 324998