‘turpe senex miles, turpe senilis amor’ (amores 1, 9, 4): ovid, cranach and cervantes

Aristotle and Flora, Virgil in the basket, Susanna and the elders… These are different samples of a theme which enjoyed a notorious success in Europe from the last decades of the Fifteenth-century onwards. More than a simple mockery or moral lesson, the topic appears related to decorum as a basic principle in both art and life. In his paintings, Cranach paid special attention to ill-matched couples, as shown in a series of erotic scenes where a young damsel has an old man for lover; in his Quixote, guided by the Ovidian saying ‘Turpe senex miles, turpe senilis amor’ (Amores, 1, 9, 4), Cervantes transforms the traditional Perceval pattern in a new one. Contrary to expectations, it is an old man, not a youngster who undertakes the double adventure of war and love.