C’est d’umaine beauté l’yssue : les portraits de vieilles femmes dans la littérature médiévale française

Abstract

In French medieval poetry, the image of ideal beauty of the lady, likewise architected in portraits, is defined by a series of very specific elements. This beauty meets a kind of ugliness, also ideal, which is most often attributed to old women. Old age suggests a physical decay leading to wrinkled faces, thin body, lack of radiance and firmness of the skin, dull or gray hair. We examine at first the principles guiding the composition of portraits of beauty, and then we compare it to stereotypical characterizations of ugliness. Our review will focus on a few outstanding examples of images of old women. We reason that a close relation is established between physical decline and the topos of a longing for the past, and that it evident in these portraits.