London (EFE) , presented this Tuesday.
“The Ugly Duchess: Beauty and Satire in the Renaissance” investigates the concepts of beauty and ugliness in the Renaissance, beyond the association of the painting “An Old Woman” (1513) painted by Quinten Massys (1465/66-1530). with the illustrations created by John Tenniel in 1865 for the popular story by Lewis Carroll.
The canvas in question, of a high technical quality, shows the torso of an elderly woman who is not pretty, with distorted and exaggerated features, dressed in a shamelessly provocative and ridiculous way even for the time.
Some attributed her ugliness by conventional beauty canons to the rare Paget’s disease, which causes bone hypertrophy.
The concepts of beauty and ugliness of the Renaissance
In statements to EFE, the director of the National Gallery, Gabriele Finaldi, said on Tuesday that “what is attempted in the exhibition is to go a little beyond the topic of the ‘Ugly Duchess’ and examine concepts of beauty and ugliness in the Renaissance”.
This small selection of paintings and sculptures, which will open its doors from June 16 to June 11, reveals, according to Finaldi, that “the obsession with beauty is not of our times and, in this case, examines the question of ugliness and old age and how it is interpreted in some senses in the Renaissance”.
But, in addition, the exhibition aims to question about Renaissance attitudes towards mature women and about beauty and physical appearance.
“Old age and ugliness become the object of satire, the object of comedy, and there is a comic element in all of this, a satirical element,” highlights the gallery director.
exceptional meeting
One of the highlights is the exceptional meeting of the restored “An Old Woman” exhibited next to the work by the same author “An Old Man” (1513), loaned from a private collection in New York.
This work “represents the husband or partner, the object of an attempted seduction by the old woman”, explains Finaldi, who points out that “this invention comes from Leonardo (da Vinci), who is fascinated with the grotesque image (… ) and Massys adopts one of these images of Leonardo”.
In fact, there is a tiny drawing signed by the Italian master, where the same recognizable face with large and disproportionate features can be seen, a painting lent by King Carlos III.
As explained by the curator of the exhibition, Emma Capron, Massys probably based his famous painting on the composition of Da Vinci himself, famous throughout Europe for his grotesque drawings.