Shop art print and framed art A Grotesque Old Woman by Quentin Metsys

Grotesque Old Woman, or The Very Ugly Duchess, is a painting by the Flemish painter Quentin Metsys produced around 1513. This oil on panel is a portrait of an ugly old woman. Acquired from the collection of Hugh Blaker, it is held by the National Gallery in London. Several explanations have been put forward for this portrait. Quentin Metsys may have been inspired by a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. Others claim that it is the portrait of Margarete Maultasch, Countess of Tyrol, or that it is the portrait of a woman who never existed. In 1989, rheumatologist Jan Dequeker put forward a completely different theory: that the woman in question was in fact suffering from Paget's disease. It would therefore be Quentin Metsys' painting that inspired Leonardo da Vinci's drawing, and not the other way round. This portrait inspired John Tenniel to illustrate the character of the Duchess in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. In Roman Polanski's film The Vampire Ball, there is a copy of this painting in the gallery of family portraits in Count von Krolock's castle. In the film Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion, in Julius Caesar's bath scene, Tomcrus stands behind Julius Caesar, creating an optical effect reminiscent of this [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the renaissance period. It belongs to the flemish & northern renaissance style.

 

Find the full description of A Grotesque Old Woman by Quentin Metsys on Wikipedia.