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About This Work
A young man wearing a feathered hat and a large ruff leans toward an elderly woman, stroking her chin. The woman sits with a handful of gold coins displayed in her lap, while her other hand rests on the man's arm. The interior setting and the figures' contrasting ages emphasize a satirical narrative about greed and the folly of unnatural romantic pairings.
This work belongs to the Northern European tradition of 'Unequal Couples,' a moralizing genre that satirizes the subversion of natural order by greed and lust. It aligns with the humanist critiques of human folly found in the works of Desiderius Erasmus and Sebastian Brant, which were central to the moral philosophy of the late Renaissance.
Inscriptions(Latin)
HGoltzius Inuent. Jaques Goltzius sculp et excu Frigida cedat anus iuveni iuvenilia grata, non opibus capior, dulcis amore amor est. wijckt oudt cout vel al sijt ghij rijcke, de Juecht verhuecht in huers gelijcke.