Jan Gossaert (Jean Gossart), 'An Elderly Couple', about 1520

An elderly couple stare past each other – and us – in this astonishing study of old age. Although prosperously dressed, the pair seem disappointed: their mouths are turned resolutely down, their eyes dull and their jowls sagging. The man clutches rather desperately at his fur collar and his staff, while his wife gazes vacantly into the middle distance.

Although they overlap, each figure makes a self-contained triangle; their isolation is in vivid contrast to the classical lovers in the cameo in the man’s hat. The naked couple embrace in front of a tree; he seems to be holding a staff, she a cornucopia. They could be Mercury and Fortuna, the gods of trade and prosperity, referring to the sitters' worldly success, or possibly the lovers Venus and Mars – a bitter commentary on lost youth and passion.

Although the woman is depicted behind the man, and although in reality her head was probably not as large his, her face is only very slightly smaller. She appears to be the younger and stronger of the two. She still has most of her teeth, while he has lost his; she is tidily dressed while he is dishevelled and poorly shaven, with fallen hairs curling around the ribbons of his hat and on his fur collar. She makes a bolder pattern of simple shapes, while his contours, as well as his body, are crumpled. He is shrinking – literally, for his body is much too small in proportion to his head. Though the two may not be communicating, she appears to buttress his shrivelled form.

The only indication of their identity is in their clothing. The man’s hat badge, which was probably created by Gossart, may nevertheless suggest that he took an interest in classical antiquity. His silver-topped staff and fur-lined gown show that he is prosperous. The cap with its two trailing ribbons is of a type found fairly frequently in North Netherlandish portraits: it was perhaps a North Netherlandish fashion to wear such hats, which might have denoted a certain status. Their clothes were in fashion in the 1510s but, given their age, they may not have kept up with the latest fashions.

Unusually, the painting is on parchment, perhaps to make it easier to transport. It might not have been painted for the sitters, but for some distant friend or relative. The heads were painted in different ways – the woman’s was carefully underdrawn and there were few changes in the final paint layer, while the man’s is more sketchy with many alterations; he may have been painted after the woman. The pair may never have seen the finished painting, may never have been aware of Gossart’s merciless observation of their agedness or the pitiful contrast between the young gods on the hat badge and their own physical state.