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In the visual arts, the theme of unequal lovers was commonly the subject of prints, most often with moralizing inscriptions attached. The theme was expressed in two forms, an old woman soliciting a handsome young man or, more commonly, an old man soliciting a pretty young woman.
In 1600, while at the height of his fame as an engraver and draftsman, Goltzius abandoned printmaking and took up painting. He quickly established himself as one of the foremost painters in Haarlem and continued with undiminished prowess until his death.
In the present painting Goltzius sets the large half-length figures against a blank background; they are big and forceful and so crowded into the narrow frame of the composition that they seem to push out into our space. He paints the figures in bold bright colours, and while his brushwork is sophisticated there is nothing subtle about the scene he is painting. The man is old and ugly, with his long grey hair, moles and bulbous nose while the woman is young and firm-fleshed, with pink cheeks and swelling breasts.
Goltzius and his workshop made a number of engravings of Unequal Lovers.
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