Unequal Love

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.

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:

Former title The Luteplayer
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.