JUSTUS SUSTERMANS (attr. A)

(Antwerp, 1597 - Florence, 1681) Portrait of a gentleman Oil on canvas, cm 82X63 Justus Sustermans was trained in Antwerp and Paris, gaining considerable fame at the main Catholic courts of Europe thanks to his talent as a portrait painter. In 1621 he was welcomed in Florence by Cosimo II de 'Medici, who appointed him court painter. In this capacity he painted the effigies of the Medici family and other illustrious Florentines, now mainly kept in the Palatine Gallery and the Uffizi. His art, influenced by Guercino, Diego Velazquez and Pierre Mignard, made him so famous that he was also requested by other Italian families and therefore travelled to Parma, Piacenza, Milan, Mantua, Ferrara and Rome. Among his most famous portraits are those of Galileo Galilei, Pandolfo Ricasoli, Vittoria della Rovere, Francesco de' Medici and Geri della Rena. Francesco Redi, Florentine physician, naturalist and man of letters. In a letter to Benedetto Menzini dated 22 February 1686, talking about the portraits of the 'famous Giusto Sustermans', he said that not only were they 'very similar to the original', but they also had the merit of showing 'more brilliant certain graces, which in the faces of the originals are either not seen so at first sight, or really not so sparkling'.