The painting depicts Ludovico, the young son of Antonio Rabatta, imperial ambassador to the Venetian Republic, who followed his father to Venice in 1638, where the portrait was presumably painted. Bernardo Strozzi, an artist of Genoese origin, moved to the lagoon city around 1630, importing the influences of the Baroque painting of Rubens and Van Dyck that he had assimilated in his native city and that are perfectly captured in the setting of the portrait of the young Ludovico, as well as in the loose brushstroke.
