At just seven years old, following the death of his father Giannettino, Giovanni Andrea I was named by Andrea Doria as his direct successor. In this portrait, painted between the late 16th and early 17th century, the Prince's heir is depicted at the age of about sixty, in the dress of the Knights of the Order of Saint James of the Sword. Behind him can be seen galleys engaged in battle, a clear reference to his rank of “general of the sea” for the king of Spain. In the foreground there is his Molossian hound Roldano, a gift from King Philip II in attestation of the Dorias’ loyalty to the Spanish crown. The portrait is probably the work of Alessandro Vaiani, a Florentine artist working in Genoa at the end of the 17th century, and originally belonged to the painting collection of the great collector Gio Carlo Doria.