中文简介：

昆汀·马西斯（Quinten Massys）的《一个老女人的肖像》（《丑陋的公爵夫人》）是文艺复兴时期最出名的肖像之一。本书揭示了这幅画的原始背景，如它在讽刺艺术中的先锋地位、达芬奇怪诞画对它的影响，以及那个时期对女性、年龄和审美的复杂态度。

这幅画和另一幅《一个老男人的肖像》是情侣款讽刺肖像画，嘲讽老年妇女所谓的欲望和虚荣心。然而，仔细观察还会发现一个公然蔑视常规的人物和一个颠覆艺术期望的画家。

本书追溯了这一开创性图像背后的故事和持久的力量，探索这个老妇人如何获得了“丑陋公爵夫人”的绰号，并激发了约翰·坦尼尔（John Tenniel）为《爱丽丝梦游仙境》（1865年）绘制经典插图，从而激发了一代又一代读者的想象力。

英文简介：

Quinten Massys' An Old Woman ('The Ugly Duchess') is one of the Renaissance's most famous faces. In a fresh review of the iconic image, this book unveils the painting's original context: its status as a pioneering work of satirical art, its debt to Leonardo da Vinci's grotesque drawings, and what it tells us about the period's complex attitudes towards women, age and normative beauty.

The painting and its partner, An Old Man, are parodic portraits that mock the supposed lust and vanity of older women. Yet a closer look also reveals a figure defiantly flouting conventions and a painter subverting artistic expectations.

The publication traces the eventful afterlife and enduring power of this seminal image: how she gained her nickname 'The Ugly Duchess' and inspired John Tenniel's much-loved illustrations of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), capturing the imagination of generations of readers.