Old Man with a Young Woman (1st Half of the 16th Century) The need for relative age equality between husband and wife was addressed in the rapidly growing literature on the conditions of a happy marriage. It was thought that ignoring prescriptive literature would lead to marital strife and even abuse (at the hands of disgruntled husbands or even wives).The image below, a satire on age disparity, suggests that money was the motive for this unequal marriage. Woodcut by Hans Sebald Beham (1500-50), first half of the 16th century.