Quinten Massys: 'An Old Woman' | Paintings | The National Gallery, London

This extraordinary painting is known as A Grotesque Old Woman and I think it's lucky really that we have the title because many people are confused about whether we are in fact looking at a woman at all. It's a strange caricature of a woman who is somewhat past her best. She's certainly not in the prime of life. She has an extremely tight gown pushing her rather sad breasts to the fore. Her long upper lip gives her face an almost monkey-like expression. She's got huge ears, a snubbed nose and tiny little piggy eyes. She has really nothing much going for her at all. But she weirdly is one of the most popular paintings in the National Gallery and I think this is because she's so intriguing. You can't help but wonder why anyone would have wanted to paint her. She's sort of a victim really, a victim of fashion and I wonder what an equivalent 21st century victim of fashion would look like if Quentin Massis was around to paint her. We are meant to laugh at this poor woman but we're also meant to consider why she's doing this and of course I suppose the equivalent in English would be mutton dressed as lamb. This is a woman much past her prime who's forced herself into a dress that doesn't fit and a headdress that would suit somebody considerably younger. And as the proof of this, in one hand she's holding a tiny little red rosebud and the comparison here of course is between the virginal rosebud and our rather drooping petalled lady. She's the rose at the other end of its life. So the moral of the painting is to accept who you are and not try to be somebody you can't be.