Marchesa Maria Grimaldi, and Her Dwarf (c.1607). Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640). Oil on canv
Marchesa Maria Grimaldi, and Her Dwarf (c.1607). Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640). Oil on canvas. National Trust - Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset.The sitter is elaborately dressed. Her gown is fronted, edged and sleeved with gold braiding, and the cuffs are small white ruffs. Around her neck is a vast cartwheel layered ruff. It is a sumptuous full-length portrait, probably of the marchesa Maria Grimaldi, whose father, Carlo Grimaldi, put his villa at Sampadierna at the disposal of Rubens and his employer, Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga I of Mantua, in 1607. She is accompanied by a dwarf and her dog, who has the letters A. M. inscribed on its collar. The dwarf pulls aside a curtain to reveal a grand architectural setting composed of a colonnade of Corinthian pillars; the foremost pillar is entwined with flowers coming from the formal garden to the left. -- source link
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