lady with a dog and lots of presence

thanks wikimedia commons.  (PD)

This 17th-century Lady with a Dog might be a portrait of Maria Caterina Farnese, Duchess of Modena.  Or not.  I was more attracted to the sheer physical presence of her, and wondered if her dog was also really that stout or if the artist (Gerolamo Forabosco, practiced in Padua and Venice) had to bulk the little guy up so he didn't completely disappear.  This is yet another example of the dog as prop alluding to the fidelity of the woman.  We see it constantly, and I want to point out that if this is Maria, her spouse Francesco d'Este should have had no complaints:  born in 1615, she married Francesco in January 1631, had nine children, and died in 1646 aged barely 31.