File:Attributed to Sustermans and workshop - Portrait of Leopoldo di Cosimo II de' Medici.jpg

English: Portrait of Leopoldo de' Medici (1617-1675), brother of Ferdinando II de' Medici (1610-1670).

"This portrait is an adaptation of the full-length effigy of Leopold di Cosimo II de Medici painted by Sustermans around 1640, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. There are two other versions of the painting, an octagonal one with the model holding a book, half-length, also in the Vienna museum, and a third one in the Stibbert Museum in Florence. In the latter Leopold of Cosimo holds a biretta. The painting in bidding depicts Leopold de Medici, son of Cosimo II de Medici and brother of Ferdinand II de Medici, as a cardinal. A patron of literature and collector of art, he was made a cardinal in 1667, although he did not take priestly orders until 1674.

Justus Sustermans was a Flemish painter established in Italy during the Baroque period, specializing in court portraiture. He trained in Antwerp at the school of Willem de Vos (1609), nephew of the more famous Marten de Vos. After a stay in Paris (1616) in the studio of Frans Pourbus the Younger, he soon left for Florence (1620) to be placed under the patronage of the Medici, where he soon became the court painter of the grand dukes Cosimo II de Medici, Ferdinand II de Medici and Cosimo III de Medici. In Italy he was able to study the work of the great artists of his time such as Guercino, Diego Velázquez and Pierre Mignard. He was also influenced by the Venetian School. In addition to the Florentine family, he also painted Galileo Galieli, Ferdinand I Gonzaga and Catherine de Medici. In 1625 he went to Rome, in a trip that would be decisive for his formation as an artist. In the city of the Tiber he portrayed Pope Urban VIII according to the chronicler Filippo Baldinucci. He was able to observe the works of Titian preserved in the Ludovisi collection, copying them with great dedication. He was also able to admire the legacy of the Carracci family in the Farnese Gallery."