In The Art of Love, Allen argues that the De amore and the Romance of the Rose are central to the courtly tradition and use the classical tradition in a particularly assertive fashion - and suggest a way for fantasies of love to exist even against a background of ecclesiastical prohibition. In The Art of Love, Allen argues that the De amore and the Romance of the Rose are central to the courtly tradition and use the classical tradition in a particularly assertive fashion - and suggest a way for fantasies of love to exist even against a background of ecclesiastical prohibition.