An Ugly Duchess by Quentin Matsys is a satirical portrait that was painted around 1513. It’s an oil painting painted on an oak panel. It measures 62,4×45,5 cm. 

There is a grotesque old women in the painting. She has wrinkled skin and she is dressed revealing. On her head she has the aristocratic horned headdress from her youth. In her hand she has a red flower which is a symbol of engagement. The flower however never blossoms.

For a long time the painting has been thought to have derived from Leonardo Da Vinci’s putative lost work, because of its striking resemblance to two caricature drawings of heads commonly attributed to the Italian artist. Nowadays it’s thought that the caricatures are based on the work of Matsys. He is known to have exchanged drawings with Da Vinci.

Quentin Matsys was a Flemish artists who was born in 1466 in Leuven, Belgium. He was allegedly trained as an ironsmith before becoming a painter. Matsys died in year 1530.