Quentin Metsys, Flemish
“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Fairest of Them All? As You Consider Your Answer, Keep in Mind That I Do Own a Hammer,” ca. 1513
Oil on oak wood
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Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here (archived, if necessary), here, here, here, here (archived, if necessary), here, here, and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page (Google translated French Wikipedia page has more).
/// An Old Woman, (a Duchess), Grotesque,
still believes that her form’s statuesque,
but her décolletage
is a withered mirage,
and her face is the soul of burlesque.
/// She wears outdated clothes of her youth,
though she’s clearly grown long in the tooth.
No doubt wealthy and vain,
far more ugly than plain,
she is loathsome, bizarre and uncouth.
/// The red flower she holds symbolizes
Ithat she hopes for romance, which she prizes.
But her unopened bud
will not bloom— it’s a dud.
More blunt satire which mocks and despises.
/// Other artists have drawn inspiration
from this piece, Matsys’ best known creation.
A sketch da Vinci drew,
and John Tenniel, too,
aped this haunting grotesque evocation.
/// In the famed “Wonderland” illustration,
we see Alice and her great frustration
with the Duchess and Cook,
but the Duchess’s look
was of this work an interpretation.
/// Some who’ve studied her face claim that she’s
a sad victim of Paget’s disease.
“That’s a man!” others guessed,
despite “his” cinched-up chest.
Many just see satyrical tease.
/// An essay Erasmus once wrote
mocked old women who, on their looks, dote.
His work, “In Praise of Folly”
fires a vast verbal volley
at delusional crones blind to bloat.