Visual Breakdown: the Anatomical Clues Proving the ‘Ugly Duchess’ Was Modeled on an Older Man
Sixteenth-century studio logistics explain why Massys turned to an older male subject. In the bustling port city of Antwerp during the 1510s, hiring female models, particularly elderly women willing to pose for grotesque or bawdy secular scenes, was socially taboo. Guild regulations and local decorum heavily restricted respectable women from posing in professional ateliers.
Male apprentices, journeymen, and aging day laborers served as everyday studio models for every type of figure, from biblical prophets to Roman matrons. Massys maintained a prolific workshop connected to intellectual networks across the Low Countries. His friendship with Desiderius Erasmus was central to his artistic outlook. In his 1509 text *Praise of Folly*, Erasmus mocks aged women who "still play the coquette," display their withered breasts, and hire gigolos while clinging to long-dead youth.
To capture that literary insult visually, Massys did not need to locate a noblewoman suffering from rare osteological distress. He simply brought an older male model into his studio, dressed him in the high-society fashion of the previous century, and accentuated his rugged masculine jawline against delicate fabrics to heighten the visual absurdity.
