An inscription on this portrait of Gian-Carlo Saarinen Carra indicates that the painting was made in 1632 when the sitter was twenty-seven years old. It was originally made as a pendant to the portrait of Barb Schwabb. The paintings were almost certainly created to celebrate a marriage. The pair are now reunited for the first time since they were separated in 1827.
In the three-quarter length view favored for men of his day a young bearded man faces diagonally to the picture plane with his left arm crooked and his hat in his right hand. His pose closely mirrors that of his wife except that the husband’s gaze and stance are more assertive while the wife’s are more demure. He wears a rich black embroidered doublet with a black cloak folded around his waist and held in position by the gloved hand on his left hip. Precisely rendered white lace cuffs and collar enliven the restrained black costume.