The Ugly Duchess: A Figure of Fun?

Excellent study morning from Paula Nuttall looking in depth at Quentin Massys’s “The Ugly Duchess”.

The morning complemented the current exhibition at the National Gallery which had reunited the Duchess with her other half, “An Old Man”, and had examined the context of the work.

Nuttall did this in more depth looking at the fashion for grotesque images both in Northern Europe and Italy and discussed how this knowledge may have passed between the two centres of Antwerp and Florence.

She also looked at the traditions of Morris dancing which often featured a similar figure and discussed how that was probably played by a man at the time. I loved her delicate way of explaining the sexual innuendo involved. 

We finished by looking at the history of the painting and how people gave tried to identify the Duchess as a real person and how she has seeped into the cultural zeitgeist.  

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