Portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria Today's featured picture

The Portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria is an oil-on-canvas painting by Flemish artist Sir Peter Paul Rubens, dating to 1606. It was commissioned by Marchese Giacomo Massimiliano Doria of Genoa and depicts his wife, Marchesa Brigida, shortly after their wedding in 1605. Both the Marchese and the Marchesa were members of prominent families: the Doria and the Spinola, respectively. In the painting, the Marchesa is shown in an opulent setting to convey luxury; adorned with jewels, she wears a satin and lace dress, with a broad ruff around her neck. Lighting is used to emphasise the drapery of her bulky wedding gown, while she looks down on the viewer, establishing the necessity to hang the finished portrait above the height of viewers. It has been trimmed several times on each side, removing the garden shown in the background and the lower part of the figure, including the bottom of the Marchesa's floor-length gown. The painting, part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection, now hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.