Despite her appearance, the portrait -- more often referred to as 'The Ugly Duchess' -- is so captivating that it made the old woman one of the most unforgettable figures of her time.
The 1513 portrait"An Old Woman" by Flemish artist Quinten Massys might well be one of the Renaissance's most famous paintings. It is also one of the period's most atypical.
Massys' "An Old Woman" is displayed alongside "An Old Man" as part of the National Gallery exhibit in London. Her position in relation to her partner also signals she's not just the butt of the joke. The duchess is in fact standing on the right — the beholder's left — which in double portraits of that period was the most elevated side, and usually reserved to men. Essentially, she's taking the place of her male counterpart."It's like she's turning the world upside down, and bringing change forth," Capron said.
"Across visual traditions and genres, older women have always made especially compelling subjects," art historian Frima Fox Hofrichter — who co-edited an entire anthology on the topic titled"Women, Aging and Art" — said in a phone interview."With their wrinkles and sagging breasts, furrowed brows and shapely bodies, they've taken on a range of widely diverse, often nuanced meanings that go well beyond the caricature.
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