Portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria

In 1606 Rubens was a young Flemish painter making his name in Italy, and that autumn he was in Genoa, then a rich republic of merchant-banking families. He painted Brigida Spinola Doria there, a woman of about 22 who had married her cousin, the Marchese Doria, the year before. Two of Genoa's grandest names, Spinola and Doria, met in her. What you see now is not what Rubens made. The canvas was originally a full-length portrait, the marchesa standing on a terrace with a garden behind her, but in the 19th century it was cut down on every side, taking the garden and most of her body with it. We know the missing parts because a preparatory drawing by Rubens survives in New York. Even trimmed, the red drapery snapping behind her and the stiff silver-white gown give away what he learned in Italy about making a sitter look monumental.