An Old Woman ('The Ugly Duchess')

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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This must be one of the most striking studies in ugliness in Western painting. An elderly woman with a very short nose and an exceedingly long upper lip rests one hand on a marble parapet. Her skin is pimply and wrinkled, and she seems to have lost her teeth. In spite of her hideous appearance, she is elegantly and aristocratically dressed, although by the time this picture was painted her clothes would have been many years out of date.

This painting is part of a pair: her ‘other half’ is in a private collection in New York. They are satirical portraits, mocking the vanity of the old and ugly who dress and behave as if they are still young. The woman is an elderly temptress, offering her partner a rosebud, which itself has sexual connotations; her exposed breasts are a parody of the temptations of the flesh, and the horns on her headdress are devilish.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

An Old Woman ('The Ugly Duchess')

Date

about 1513

Medium

Oil on oak

Measurements

H 62.4 x W 45.5 cm

Accession number

NG5769

Acquisition method

Bequeathed by Miss Jenny Louisa Roberta Blaker, 1947

Work type

Painting

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