Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria

Brigida Spinola Doria was a twenty-two-year-old newlywed, sprung from one of the leading noble families of the Genoese republic, when she posed full-length for this portrait. Painted in 1606 during his stay in Genoa, the picture is one of the youthful triumphs of Peter Paul Rubens:

the marchesa stands with serene authority in a shimmering gown, her hand resting at her breast, before a curtain and a carefully composed architectural setting. Rubens, already famed as a court painter, here combines the opulence of Genoese aristocratic display with the bold, confident painterliness that would make him the most celebrated artist of Northern Europe.

A masterpiece of the young Baroque, the portrait shows the new bride carrying her rank with the magnificent ease that made the Genoese nobility the most sumptuous in Italy.