The Ugly Duchess: Beauty and Satire in the Renaissance

Quinten Massys' "An Old Woman" is a pioneering work of satirical art that reveals the complex attitudes towards women, age, and normative beauty of the Renaissance. It is a parodic portrait that mocks the supposed lust and vanity of older women but also reveals a figure defiantly flouting conventions and a painter subverting artistic expectations. The painting has gained its nickname "The Ugly Duchess" and has inspired John Tenniel's illustrations of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865), capturing the imagination of generations of readers.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 80 pages
Publication date: 14 March 2023
Publisher: National Gallery Company Ltd

Quinten Massys 'An Old Woman (‘The Ugly Duchess) is one of the Renaissance's most iconic 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.

Published by National Gallery Global/Distributed by Yale University Press

Exhibition Schedule:

National Gallery, London, 16 March–11 June 2023

Weight: 460g
Dimension: 230 x 269 x 12 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781857096941