In Cavalcanti and Muscia, the disfigured woman is cynically presented as therapy for the illness of love

In comic-realistic poetry Rustico Filippi, drawing on Latin poetry and medieval Artes dictandi, vituperates the ugly woman for her disgusting body and bad odour, which obliquely reveals immoderate sexuality

perfection, decorum, fruition of divine love, ultimately truth. A study of literary female ugliness must necessarily take into account the classical aesthetic models dominant in the Western canon and then focus on exploring instances of infringement on this canon. The transgression of models of feminine beauty works at different levels, from the subversion of distinctive conventional elements (old age, dark hair or skin) to parodistic sexy nordics women remakes of the most common models. 7 In the Renaissance, the transgression of the canon no longer targets age and morals but social groups and manners.Leggi tutto