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The Ill-Matched Couple

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The Ill-Matched Couple, The Odd Couple or The Payment is a 1532 oil painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder. It was owned by Maximilian I of Bavaria until 1632, when Swedish troops captured it in a raid on Munich and thus is now in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.

It shows a wizened old man paying a young woman. She is depicted in a seductive neckline, which suggests he may be paying her for sexual services. The grapes and pomegranate in front of the couple symbolize desire and fertility. The scale in her hand alludes to the Last Judgment, when according to the Bible everyone will be judged according to their deeds. The subject was a popular one and Cranach frequently returned to it, occasionally reversing it to a young husband and an old wife.

Similar works by Cranach

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Image Date Technique Dimensions (cm) Collection
1517 oil on panel 27,3 x 18 Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona[1]
1520–1522 oil on beechwood 37 x 31 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest[2][3]
1522 oil on beechwood 84,5 x 63,6 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest[4]
1528 oil on beechwood 76,8 x 56,8 Fränkische Galerie, Kronach[5]
c. 1525–1530 oil on beechwood 31,5 x 23 Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt[6]
c. 1525–1530 oil on limewood 87 x 60 Alte Pinakothek, Munich[7]
c. 1530 oil on beechwood 38.1 x 25,1 National Gallery, Prague[8]
c. 1530 oil on panel, later transferred to canvas 79 x 57,5 Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie, Besançon[9]
c. 1530 oil on limewood 86,7 x 58,5 Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg[10]
c. 1530 oil on beechwood 38,8 × 25,7 Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf[11]
1531 oil on beechwood 51 x 36 Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna[12]
1537 tempera and oil on panel 75,5 x 48,5 National Museum, Warsaw
c. 1530–1540 oil on limewood 19,5 × 14,5 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna[13]
c. 1540 oil on panel 91 x 61 Veste Coburg, Coburg[14]
c. 1537–1545 oil on panel 85,7 x 59 National Museum of Georgia, Tbilisi[15]

References

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  1. ^ "Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunyas website".
  2. ^ "The Ill-matched Couple - Lucas Cranach the Elder". Google Arts & Culture.
  3. ^ "Ill-matched Couple: Young Man and Old Woman". Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.
  4. ^ "The Ill-Matched Couple - Lucas Cranach the Elder". Google Arts & Culture.
  5. ^ "Sammlung | Ungleiches Paar (Der alte Buhler)". www.sammlung.pinakothek.de.
  6. ^ Köln, Cranach Digital Archive Team // TH (July 28, 2024). "Peasant and Prostitute". lucascranach.org.
  7. ^ "Sammlung | Ungleiches Paar (Der alte Buhler)". www.sammlung.pinakothek.de.
  8. ^ "Lucas Cranach st. - Nerovná láska (Starý pošetilec)". Web umenia. December 22, 1528.
  9. ^ "Courtisane et vieillard". pop.culture.gouv.fr.
  10. ^ Germanisches Nationalmuseum website
  11. ^ "Das ungleiche Paar (Der verliebte Alte)". emuseum.duesseldorf.de.
  12. ^ "Web Gallery of Art, searchable fine arts image database". www.wga.hu.
  13. ^ "Alter Mann und Mädchen". www.khm.at.
  14. ^ "Ungleiches Paar (Die verliebte Alte) | Lucas Cranach (der Ältere) | Bildindex der Kunst & Architektur - Bildindex der Kunst & Architektur - Startseite Bildindex". www.bildindex.de.
  15. ^ Köln, Cranach Digital Archive Team // TH (July 28, 2024). "The Procuress". lucascranach.org.