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‘Grotesque
Old Woman’ by Quinten Massys, about 1525-30
The ugly old woman in this portrait is wearing a
very a low-cut dress that was fashionable in Italy
over 500 years ago. Her head-dress, however, was
popular in Germany. It is not certain whether this
is a portrait of a real person, or a picture carrying
a moral message. It has been suggested that the
sitter is possibly Margaret, Duchess of Carinthia
and Countess of Tyrol. It has also been suggested
that the sitter had a hereditary illness, called
Paget’s Disease, which causes the bones in
the face to become deformed.
The cruelly comic message in the painting may have
derived from the humanist Erasmus’s writings.
In his satire ‘Praise of Folly’, he
mocks old woman who “still wish to play the
goat, industriously smear their faces with paint,
never get away from the mirror, and do not hesitate
to display their foul and withered breasts.”
It is thought that an engraving of this painting
inspired John Tenniel’s illustrations for
the Duchess in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice
in Wonderland’.
© The National Gallery, London
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