Unequal Love | |
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Year | 1631 |
Medium | oil paint, canvas |
Dimensions | 82 cm (32 in) × 66.5 cm (26.2 in) |
Identifiers | RKDimages ID: 199022 Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur ID: 08109576 |
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:
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.
The painting was catalogued by Juliane Harms in 1937 as Lautenspieler (luteplayer). She classified it as one of Leyster's "intimate" portraits. The informal pose of the musician does suggest intimacy, especially considering that the female figure was not visible at all when Harms saw the picture. The woman was only resurrected during restoration after WWII. The Bildindex still has an image of the painting in its pre-restoration state.
Frans Hals the Elder was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem.
Hendrick Goltzius, or Hendrik, was a German-born Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, or Northern Mannerism, lauded for his sophisticated technique, technical mastership and "exuberance" of his compositions. According to A. Hyatt Mayor, Goltzius "was the last professional engraver who drew with the authority of a good painter and the last who invented many pictures for others to copy". In the middle of his life he also began to produce paintings.
The Frans Hals Museum is a museum located in Haarlem, the Netherlands.
Judith Jans Leyster was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works, portraits, and still lifes. Her work was highly regarded by her contemporaries, but largely forgotten after her death. Her entire oeuvre came to be attributed to Frans Hals or to her husband, Jan Miense Molenaer. In 1893, she was rediscovered and scholars began to attribute her works properly.
Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem was a Dutch Golden Age painter and draughtsman, one of the leading Northern Mannerist artists in the Netherlands, and an important forerunner of Frans Hals as a portraitist.
Hendrik Gerritsz Pot was a Dutch Golden Age painter, who lived and painted in Haarlem, where he was an officer of the militia, or schutterij. Dutch artist Frans Hals painted Pot in militia sash in Hals' The Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1633. Pot is the man reading a book on the far right.
Jan Miense Molenaer, was a Dutch Golden Age genre painter whose style was a precursor to Jan Steen's work during Dutch Golden Age painting. He shared a studio with his wife, Judith Leyster, also a genre painter, as well as a portraitist and painter of still-life. Both Molenaer and Leyster may have been pupils of Frans Hals.
Salomon de Bray was a Dutch Golden Age painter and architect.
The Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke was first a Christian, and later a city Guild for various trades falling under the patron saints Luke the Evangelist and Saint Eligius.
The Proposition is a genre painting of 1631 by Judith Leyster, now in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, who title it Man offering money to a young woman. It depicts a woman, sewing by candlelight, as a man leans over her, touching her right shoulder with his left hand. He is offering her coins in his right hand, but she is apparently ignoring the offer and concentrating intently upon her sewing. As we see the female protagonist (seemingly) ignore the advances of her suitor, this painting has been considered to potentially be a feminist work.
The Lute Player is an oil-on-canvas painting from 1623 or 1624 now in the Louvre by the Haarlem painter Frans Hals, showing a smiling actor wearing a jester's costume and playing a lute.
The Fingernail Test is an oil-on-canvas Dutch Golden Age painting that has been attributed to either Frans Hals or Judith Leyster, painted in 1626 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
Self-portrait by Judith Leyster is a Dutch Golden Age painting in oils now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. It was offered in 1633 as a masterpiece to the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke. It was attributed for centuries to Frans Hals and was only properly attributed to Judith Leyster upon acquisition by the museum in 1949. The style is indeed comparable to that of Hals, Haarlem's most famous portraitist.
The Serenade is a 1629 oil painting by Judith Leyster in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. It was attributed for centuries to Frans Hals until Wilhelm von Bode saw it in the Six collection in 1883. He noticed the prominent "J" in the signature, and attributed it to Jan Hals. This is one of seven paintings first properly attributed to Leyster by Hofstede de Groot ten years later in 1893.
The Last Drop is a c. 1629 oil painting by Judith Leyster in the John G. Johnson collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was regarded as a work by Frans Hals until 1903, when it was noticed that it is signed 'JL*' on the tankard.
Young man playing the lute is an oil painting by Judith Leyster in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, and is a period copy of the same subject by Frans Hals. It was acquired by the museum as a painting by Frans Hals and was skipped by the researcher Juliane Harms in 1927, being finally attributed to Leyster by Seymour Slive in 1974.
A Game of Tric-Trac is a painting by Judith Leyster from 1630.