JUSTUS SUSTERMANS (maniera di)

(Antwerp, 1597 - Florence, 1681) Portrait of Galileo Galilei Oil on paper applied to cardboard, cm 44X29,5 Justus Sustermans 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 received in Florence by Cosimo II de 'Medici, who appointed him court painter. As such, he painted the effigies of the Medici family and of other illustrious Florentines, now mainly kept in the Palatine Gallery and in the Uffizi (oil on canvas, 56x48 cm - inv. 1890 no. 745). The portrait of Galilei is certainly his most famous work and the original kept in the Uffizi was commissioned by Elia Diodati (1576-1661), a jurist of Lucca origin who lived between Geneva and Paris and who, as a close friend of the scientist, committed himself from the 1920s to spreading his writings in Europe. After Galilei's death, the painting passed to his disciple Vincenzo Villani, who donated it to Ferdinando I, as Filippo Baldinucci tells us. Reference bibliography: F. Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua per le quali si dimostra come, e per chi le belle arti di pittura, scultura e architettura, 4, Batelli, 1846, pp. 473 ; 488 M. Chiarini, C. Pizzorusso, Sustermans. Sessant'anni alla corte dei Medici, exhibition catalogue, Florence 1983, ad vocem