Somewhere between the merry sensuality of Ovid and the ecstatic spirituality of Platonism is the tradition of Courtly Love. Courtly love resembles the Ovidian convention in that it is not supersensous: its aim is physical consummation, its object of love physical beauty. It differs from the Ovidian tradition in its interpretation of the nature of love. In the Courtly system, love is seen as an ennobling passion, the lady as an object of worship, and the conventions of courtship as religious rituals. The lady, furthermore, is venerated not simply as an ideal of physical beauty, but as an image or reflection of an ideal of spiritual beauty.

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