Ill-Matched Marriage

Metsys's Ill-Matched Marriage from around 1520 depicts the standard moralizing subject of unequal partnership — an old man marrying a young woman, or vice versa — that was a staple of satirical art from at least Brueghel's generation. The ill-matched couple was simultaneously a subject for comedy (the mismatched desires and expectations of age and youth) and for moral warning (the folly of marrying for money rather than love). Metsys's treatment, influenced by the grotesque tradition of his Leonardo-derived Ugly Duchess, combined social observation with moral commentary in the manner that characterized his humanist approach to genre subjects, equally at home with devotional altarpieces and satirical genre scenes.

Caricatured physiognomy exaggerates the age contrast between the couple, using grotesque distortion indebted to Leonardo's studies of extreme facial types. Sharp, linear drawing defines the figures against a neutral background that concentrates attention on their interaction.