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Lot Essay
This impressive full-length portrait depicts Cardinal Carlo de Medici (1595-1666), the younger brother of Cosimo II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1590-1621), for whom Sustermans began working upon his arrival in Italy. Born and trained in Flanders, Sustermans arrived in Florence in 1620 and shortly afterwards began working as court painter to the Medici family, under whose employment he remained for the rest of his life. Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici is here depicted wearing the sumptuous robes of his office, with the bottom of his white cotta (or surplice) deftly replicated by the artist with a deep band of finely worked lace. On his head, he wears a scarlet silk biretta indicating his status as a Cardinal.
Raised to the cardinalate at an early age in December 1615 by Pope Paul V, Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici first served as Cardinal Deacon of the Church of Santa Maria in Dominica, Rome and quickly became a significant and influential figure in the Roman Church. He sat as an Elector at the papal conclaves of 1621 (following the death of Paul V) and 1623 (after the short-lived tenure of his successor Gregory XV). In that year, which saw the election of Urban VIII as pope, Carlo de’ Medici transferred deaconries to that of San Nicola in Carcere, in Rome. He continued to serve as a principal Elector at papal conclaves, and as the Cardinal protodeacon at the election of Innocent X in 1644. This office made him responsible for announcing the new Pope’s election from Saint Peter’s Basilica, as well as the official who bestowed the pallium and papal tiara on the new Pope. Throughout the 1640s and 1650s, he continued to hold important ecclesiastical posts in Rome and the surrounding region, becoming Bishop of Sabina and then of Frascati in 1645, and then Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina in 1652. This was the year he was again elevated as Bishop of Ostia e Velletri (the only member of his family to hold this prestigious post) and as Dean of the College of Cardinal in Rome, which saw him preside over the conclave of 1655 and the election of Pope Alexander VII. Alongside his increasingly significant positions in the Church, Medici also pursued an opulent lifestyle, living in some apparent grandeur between Rome and Florence. A lover of the arts, he devoted significant energies to the renovation and redecoration of the Villa Medici in Rome, his main residence in the city, and oversaw the reconstruction of the Villa de Careggi in Florence. He was a patron to several leading painters in Italy, commissioning paintings of The Triumph of David from Matteo Rosselini (Florence, Palazzo Pitti), Narcissus and Erminia and the Shepherds (Florence, Villa La Petraia) from Francesco Curradi and a Ruggiero and Alcina from Rutilio di Lorenzo Manetti (Florence, Palazzo Pitti) for the decoration of the Casino Mediceo di San Marco, one of his Florentine residences.
The Cardinal would have been well-acquainted with Sustermans’ work, since the artist had been working for his family since his youth. The present picture was probably painted during the painter’s 1645 soujourn to Rome, where he produced two distinct portrait types of the sitter. This impressive full-length portrait relates closely to a drawing in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe of the Galleria degli Uffizi (fig. 1). While it has been typically related to another version of the present picture in the collection of the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (fig. 2), it likewise bears close semblance to the present work, and so may represent the artist’s initial likeness of the sitter, which was used for both portraits. Carlo de’ Medici appears to have sat to Sustermans only for his full-length portrait, with the artist’s half-length likeness in Milan (Museo Poldi-Pezzoli) probably adapted from studies he made during this initial interaction rather than from a renewed sitting. The graceful composition and confident handling of the paint in the present work suggest a date after the 1630s, when Sustermans’ work began to be increasingly influenced by Anthony van Dyck’s Genoese portraits, like his Portrait of Agostino Pallavicini of circa 1621 (J.P. Getty Museum, Los Angeles). The sweeping curtain in the background, profuse robes and loosely posed, elegant hands all recall works from van Dyck’s Genoese period.
Raised to the cardinalate at an early age in December 1615 by Pope Paul V, Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici first served as Cardinal Deacon of the Church of Santa Maria in Dominica, Rome and quickly became a significant and influential figure in the Roman Church. He sat as an Elector at the papal conclaves of 1621 (following the death of Paul V) and 1623 (after the short-lived tenure of his successor Gregory XV). In that year, which saw the election of Urban VIII as pope, Carlo de’ Medici transferred deaconries to that of San Nicola in Carcere, in Rome. He continued to serve as a principal Elector at papal conclaves, and as the Cardinal protodeacon at the election of Innocent X in 1644. This office made him responsible for announcing the new Pope’s election from Saint Peter’s Basilica, as well as the official who bestowed the pallium and papal tiara on the new Pope. Throughout the 1640s and 1650s, he continued to hold important ecclesiastical posts in Rome and the surrounding region, becoming Bishop of Sabina and then of Frascati in 1645, and then Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina in 1652. This was the year he was again elevated as Bishop of Ostia e Velletri (the only member of his family to hold this prestigious post) and as Dean of the College of Cardinal in Rome, which saw him preside over the conclave of 1655 and the election of Pope Alexander VII. Alongside his increasingly significant positions in the Church, Medici also pursued an opulent lifestyle, living in some apparent grandeur between Rome and Florence. A lover of the arts, he devoted significant energies to the renovation and redecoration of the Villa Medici in Rome, his main residence in the city, and oversaw the reconstruction of the Villa de Careggi in Florence. He was a patron to several leading painters in Italy, commissioning paintings of The Triumph of David from Matteo Rosselini (Florence, Palazzo Pitti), Narcissus and Erminia and the Shepherds (Florence, Villa La Petraia) from Francesco Curradi and a Ruggiero and Alcina from Rutilio di Lorenzo Manetti (Florence, Palazzo Pitti) for the decoration of the Casino Mediceo di San Marco, one of his Florentine residences.
The Cardinal would have been well-acquainted with Sustermans’ work, since the artist had been working for his family since his youth. The present picture was probably painted during the painter’s 1645 soujourn to Rome, where he produced two distinct portrait types of the sitter. This impressive full-length portrait relates closely to a drawing in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe of the Galleria degli Uffizi (fig. 1). While it has been typically related to another version of the present picture in the collection of the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (fig. 2), it likewise bears close semblance to the present work, and so may represent the artist’s initial likeness of the sitter, which was used for both portraits. Carlo de’ Medici appears to have sat to Sustermans only for his full-length portrait, with the artist’s half-length likeness in Milan (Museo Poldi-Pezzoli) probably adapted from studies he made during this initial interaction rather than from a renewed sitting. The graceful composition and confident handling of the paint in the present work suggest a date after the 1630s, when Sustermans’ work began to be increasingly influenced by Anthony van Dyck’s Genoese portraits, like his Portrait of Agostino Pallavicini of circa 1621 (J.P. Getty Museum, Los Angeles). The sweeping curtain in the background, profuse robes and loosely posed, elegant hands all recall works from van Dyck’s Genoese period.