The Ugly Duchess: Beauty and Satire in the Renaissance

This international conference, organised to celebrate the exhibition ‘The Ugly Duchess: Beauty and Satire in the Renaissance’, saw speakers from the USA, Europe and the UK explore how Quinten Massys and his contemporaries paved the way to a new form secular, humorous painting in the early sixteenth century. Papers highlighted the artistic exchanges between Italy and the Netherlands that took place in the process and examined how this complex new imagery often took aim at – but also perhaps empowered – Renaissance women.

The conference, held at the Society of Antiquaries of London and livestreamed online, was supported by Professor Diane Apostolos-Cappadona in honour of Stacia Apostolos.

View the conference programme [PDF, 550KB]