The painting entered the Cariplo Collection with the incorporation of the IBI Collection as the work of an unknown 17th-century painter and was published as such in the catalogue of 1995. The description of the canvas in the catalogue of 1998 suggests an attribution to Giovanni Bernardo Carbone, a Genoese artist and pupil of Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari but above all a follower and emulator of Anton Van Dyck, whose stay in Genoa from 1621 to 1627 left a deep imprint on the art of the Liguria region. Carbone was influenced by the Dutch artist in his many portraits, where he displayed marked technical skill above all in the rendering of fabrics and decoration.

The Cariplo Foundation painting constitutes a significant example of his art in the virtuoso depiction of the lace of the shirt and the sumptuous collar. Interest attaches to the construction of the painting, with the left elbow projecting forward to create the space and the right shoulder slightly backwards. The painter offers a naturalistic portrayal of the young man, depicted in an informal attitude with an intense gaze directed towards the viewer as though in a dialogue, as suggested also by the gesture of the right hand. One of the closest terms of comparison appears to be the Portrait of a Prelate in the gallery of the Palazzo Reale in Genoa, dated some time between 1660 and 1680, the same period as the Caroplo oval, and the Portrait of a Gentleman in the Wallace Collection, London, where a similar movement of the hand can be seen [1].