Her attire, especially her bejewelled horned headdress, is lavish. Unconcerned with the decorum expected from elderly women in Renaissance Europe, she has chosen a tightly laced blue dress that emphasises her wrinkled cleavage. But, however fine her clothing, by the time this panel was painted her outfit would have seemed laughably outdated – the clothes were fashionable in her youth, but by 1510 her attire would have made the sitter a figure of ridicule rather than of high fashion.
The old woman is wearing this elaborate garment in the hope of attracting a suitor. This was once explicit. The painting has a pendant: a panel depicting An Old Man now in a private collection. Turned towards her companion, the old woman offers him a rosebud – a token of love, which he firmly refuses. Sixteenth-century viewers were invited to laugh at her self-delusion, but she seems blissfully unperturbed by this rebuttal. Today her defiance might inspire empathy or even admiration.