Unequal Love is a painting made in about 1631 by the Dutch Golden Age painter Judith Leyster. It is in the collection of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome.[1]
The painting shows the theme of the ill-matched couple, a popular theme in the arts of the period, though generally the one making the proposition is a man to a courtesan, not a woman to a man. The theme generally shows the man offering the woman a ring in combination with a purse of money. Earlier examples of Haarlem versions of this that were based on earlier Flemish examples are:
Cornelis van Haarlem, 1597
Hendrick Goltzius, 1614
Hendrick Goltzius, c. 1615
Cornelis van Haarlem, 1619
This painting certainly fits in that tradition, unlike Leyster's much more ambiguous The Proposition, also dated the same year. Here a man is sitting sideways on a simple wooden chair with his legs crossed playing the lute. He turns his head to the spectator. Behind him an older woman grasps a money purse with one hand and offers the musician a ring with the other. Both are dressed in simple peasant clothing, but there is a second purse on the table, and gold coins are spread out for counting from a money box gleaming with metal decorations that seem to contradict the simple characters in the scene. On a small three-legged stool rests a candlestick, but there is no candle in it. It lines up with a pile of coins as if to imply that instead of the "fire of love" there is money to be had for the taking.
The pose of the man leaning over the back of a chair is a common pose used by Leyster's master Frans Hals, and the crossed legs of the musician can be seen in the work of Leyster's future husband Jan Miense Molenaer. Perhaps the lute was his or hers as it features in works by both of them.
Man leaning over the back of a chair, 1631, by Hals
Party at the inn called 'De Kroon', 1630, by Molenaer
UnequalLove is a painting made in about 1631 by the Dutch Golden Age painter Judith Leyster. It is in the collection of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte...
Unequal exchange is used primarily in Marxist economics, but also in ecological economics (more specifically also as ecologically unequal exchange), to...
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in a Candlelit Interior 1631 31 cm x 22 cm Private collection London UnequalLove 1631 80 cm x 65 cm 1086 Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica Rome A Game...
Dictionary @ Russian WikiSource. "The Unequal Marriage" an appreciation of the painting at "Zhivopis". "The Unequal Marriage" a video presentation by the...
(3 wins): William Haggas - Pretty Baby (2018), Light Refrain (2021), UnequalLove (2024) The 2020 running was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic...
A declaration of love, also known as a confession of love, is a form of expressing one's love for someone or something. It can be presented in various...
of Tric-Trac (1630) Standing Cavalier (1630) The Proposition (1631) UnequalLove (c. 1631) A Youth with a Jug (1633) Self-portrait (c. 1633) A Boy and...
such as 'unequallove' (depicting a couple of widely different ages) and 'merry companies'. In these paintings temptation and purchased love always seem...
another popular theme of Flemish genre art is depicted: that of the unequallove between an older man and a younger woman. His Prodigal son feasting with...
Homosexual behaviors at Rome were acceptable only within an inherently unequal relationship; male Roman citizens retained their masculinity as long as...
Homosexual behaviors at Rome were acceptable only within an inherently unequal relationship; male Roman citizens retained their masculinity as long as...
Taxi 2's" Lee Ji-hoon and "Demon" Kim Tae-ri shared the Grand Prize for "Unequal" [Overall] (SBS Acting Awards)]. SpoTV News (in Korean). Archived from...
older son, she died in Paris in 1951. The story of Etta Federn and her unequallove for her two sons inspired Stig Dagerman's 1948 play Skuggan av Mart (Marty's...
sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents...
vague boundaries of 20-something romance, and takes the time to show its unequal relationships from both sides." "Schedule". Tokyo International Film Festival...
and is numbered 226 in the Perry Index. The account of a race between unequal partners has attracted conflicting interpretations. The fable itself is...
amazing how unequal we are". The Guardian. "The Citizens". 16 September 2020. Zamora, Natalie (24 June 2022). "Rik Mayall had quite the love life that included...
scripture — probably, to accord theological sanction to an increasingly unequal Kuru polity — and is the only hymn to mention the four varnas in explicit...
should not give up hope because there have been many other happy although unequal matches. When Emma discovers the truth as to whom Harriet wishes to marry...
Taxi 2's" Lee Ji-hoon and "Demon" Kim Tae-ri shared the Grand Prize for "Unequal" [Overall] (SBS Acting Awards)]. SpoTV News (in Korean). Archived from...
Global Information
Cornelis van Haarlem, 1597
Hendrick Goltzius, 1614
Hendrick Goltzius, c. 1615
Cornelis van Haarlem, 1619
Man leaning over the back of a chair, 1631, by Hals
Party at the inn called 'De Kroon', 1630, by Molenaer
The Duet, 1630, Molenaer
A young woman with a lute, 1631, Leyster
