La marquise Maria Grimaldi et son nain

Before Rubens became the towering figure of Antwerp, he spent eight years in Italy taking in everything he could, employed by the Duke of Mantua and painting portraits for the rich merchant families of Genoa. This dates from around 1607, near the end of that Italian stretch. The sitter is thought to be Maria Grimaldi, whose father had lent his villa to Rubens and the duke. She stands in stiff Genoese finery beside a small attendant and a little dog, whose collar carries the letters A and M. Keeping a person of short stature in a great household was ordinary then, treated as a mark of the family's standing. The English collector William Bankes later bought the picture in Italy and hung it at Kingston Lacy in Dorset, where it remains.