Beauty and ugliness: Melibea and Dulcinea between tradition and deviation

Abstract

Melibea and Dulcinea share a series of physical features which belong to different traditions. Both ladies are highly complex creations that – according to the perspective of the characters by which they are described (Calisto, Sempronio and Areúsa or Don Quixote and Sancho) – are presented to the reader as women of great beauty or of terrifying ugliness. The present article contextualizes the prosopographies of these emblematic female characters within the literary and scientific discourse of medieval and early modern times in order to untangle the different meanings involved in these descriptions.