Hlootoo's Art

life-imitates-art-far-more:

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
“Portrait of Maria Serra Pallavicino” (1606)
Oil on canvas
Baroque
Located in the Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset, England

The sitter, Maria Serra, was the wife of Niccolò Pallavicino, banker and host to Rubens’s employer, Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga of Mantua, whose hospitality in 1606 included a banquet and a ball, at which she probably wore the lavish dress in which she is portrayed.