A smiling young woman and an elderly man with exaggerated features embrace and gaze into each other’s eyes while a person dressed in the orange costume of a fool lurks behind them to our left in this horizontal painting. All three have pale skin and are shown from the chest up behind a ledge or tabletop against a black background. The older man to our right wears a dark teal-blue garment and a bright crimson-red head covering that drapes over both shoulders. Wrinkles and age spots cover his face, which is accentuated by a bulbous nose and a leering smile that exposes missing teeth. His arms reach out and encircle the woman to our left. Cradling the right side of her head with his right hand, his left arm reaches across to her upper body, his thumb visible at her breast. A blue and gold band holds the woman’s auburn-brown hair back. A white shift peeks through the slashed sleeves of her emerald-green, gold-trimmed gown. She reaches toward the elderly man with her right arm, her hand holding his chin. Her left arm reaches across her body under his arm and she holds a leather pouch in that hand. A man wearing an orange cap with asses’ ears reaches for the pouch, eyes crossed and his tongue protruding from the side of his mouth. Playing cards and coins lie on the ledge to our left.

Ill-Matched Lovers

Quentin Massys

A smiling young woman and an elderly man with exaggerated features embrace and gaze into each other’s eyes while a person dressed in the orange costume of a fool lurks behind them to our left in this horizontal painting. All three have pale skin and are shown from the chest up behind a ledge or tabletop against a black background. The older man to our right wears a dark teal-blue garment and a bright crimson-red head covering that drapes over both shoulders. Wrinkles and age spots cover his face, which is accentuated by a bulbous nose and a leering smile that exposes missing teeth. His arms reach out and encircle the woman to our left. Cradling the right side of her head with his right hand, his left arm reaches across to her upper body, his thumb visible at her breast. A blue and gold band holds the woman’s auburn-brown hair back. A white shift peeks through the slashed sleeves of her emerald-green, gold-trimmed gown. She reaches toward the elderly man with her right arm, her hand holding his chin. Her left arm reaches across her body under his arm and she holds a leather pouch in that hand. A man wearing an orange cap with asses’ ears reaches for the pouch, eyes crossed and his tongue protruding from the side of his mouth. Playing cards and coins lie on the ledge to our left.

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Quentin Massys
Date
c. 1520/1525
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 43.2 x 63 cm (17 x 24 13/16 in.) framed: 61.6 x 81.3 x 7.6 cm (24 1/4 x 32 x 3 in.)
Department
CNE-R
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Art Genome Taxonomy

11 tags

Subject Matter

  • Love Both · 98%

    The title identifies the central pair as lovers, and the image shows them embracing and engaging in intimate physical contact.

  • Seduction and Courtship Both · 86%

    The couple’s embrace, touching, and sustained mutual gaze support a reading involving courtship or seduction, although the precise narrative is not established.

  • Eye Contact Both · 100%

    The young woman and elderly man visibly gaze into one another’s eyes; the catalog explicitly describes their mutual gaze.

  • Grotesque Both · 97%

    The elderly man’s bulbous nose, pronounced wrinkles, missing teeth, and exaggerated leering expression are clearly visible and are also described in the catalog.

  • Implied Narrative Interpretive · 88%

    The interaction among the embracing pair, the intruding fool, the pouch, and the objects on the ledge suggests an episode extending beyond a static arrangement, while the title frames the scene as an encounter.

  • Face Visual · 98%

    Three prominently rendered faces organize the composition through their expressions and exchanged gaze.

  • Human Figure Visual · 100%

    Three human figures occupy the foreground, shown primarily from the chest up and connected through gesture and touch.

Medium and Techniques

  • Painting Metadata · 100%

    The National Gallery of Art classifies the work as a painting.

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 100%

    The catalog explicitly identifies the medium as oil on panel.

  • Oil on Panel Metadata · 100%

    The catalog specifies a panel support for the oil painting.

Time Periods

  • 16th Century Art Metadata · 100%

    The work is dated c. 1520/1525, placing it within the sixteenth century.

Source & rights

Quentin Massys. Ill-Matched Lovers. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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