Gio Carlo Doria was a Genoese nobleman with a great passion for the arts. Hundreds of canvases were kept in his house, including this painting. Painted in 1606 by the young Pieter Paul Rubens, father of the Baroque and one of the most sought-after European painters, the portrait depicts the nobleman on horseback: an honor worthy of a sovereign. Gio Carlo's strange calm perhaps represents his dominion over the forces of nature. During the Second World War, before becoming part of the museum's collections, the work had been stolen by the Nazis.