Justus Sustermans
Justus Sustermans, Joost Sustermans or Suttermans, his given name Italianised to Giusto (28 September 1597 – 23 April 1681), was a Flemish painter and draughtsman who is mainly known for his portraits. He also painted history and genre paintings, still lifes and animals.[1]
Sustermans is chiefly noted for his portraits of members of the Medici family as he was its court painter. The Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II invited him to Vienna to paint portraits of the Imperial family and granted Sustermans and his brothers patents of nobility.[2] During his lifetime he was fêted as the finest portrait painter in Italy.[3]
Life
Justus Sustermans was born in
When
As the Medici had many family connections with other courts in northern Italy and Austria, Sustermans often travelled to other cities in Italy as well as to Vienna.
He traveled to Rome with his brother Frans, where in 1627 he painted portraits of Pope Urban VIII and most of the cardinals at the Vatican. Other travels included a 1639 stay at the Farnese court in Parma where he would have seen the work of Correggio.
He became friends with Rubens and van Dyck and maintained regular correspondence with them.[9] He commissioned from Rubens in 1638 the painting Horrors of War (Florence, Pitti Palace) for his own collection.[6] He operated a large workshop which produced many copies and variations of his paintings. Some of the collaborators in his workshop established a name for themselves including the brothers Valore and Domenico Casini, Valerio Marucelli, Francesco Bianchi Buonavita and Giovanni Lionardo Henner. These assistants likely painted the secondary details in his portraits.[6] The important role played by the workshop in his output had a negative impact on his posthumous reputation.[3]
Sustermans married three times. He married first Dejanira di Santi Fabbretti, originally from Pisa. She died in August 1628 at the birth of their only son Carlo who later became a priest. In 1635 he married Maddalena di Cosimo Mazzocchi, from which union were born a son Francesco Maria and a daughter Vittoria. His son died in 1663. He married Maddalena Artimini in 1664 with whom he had another son and daughter.[9] His nephew Giovanni Vangheldri (Jan van Gelder) (active 1651-1675), a son of his sister Clara Sustermans and merchant Johannes van Gelder, was a prominent portrait artist for the Dukes of Modena and Counts of Novellara. He likely joined his uncle Justus in Modena in 1649.[10][11]
He died in Florence on 23 April 1681 and was buried in San Felice church.[1]
Work
Sustermans is mainly known for his portrait paintings. He also painted a number of history and genre paintings, still lifes and animals.[1]
He rarely dated his works, which makes it difficult to establish a chronology. His works have been dated mainly by relying on the apparent age of identified sitters. His early portraits show the influence of his master Frans Pourbus the Younger whose courtly portrait style was known for accentuating attention to precious details as well as its hard modelling.[2][12] Sustermans did not share the Flemish preference for concentrating on the details of the sitters' clothes and rather favored a monumental simplicity in form. In Italy his style started to reflect the contact with Florentine painters such as Cristofano Allori and Domenico Passignano.[12] An example is the Portrait of Fra' Francesco dell'Antella (private collection, before early 1623). His Maria Maddalena of Austria (Wife of Duke Cosimo II de' Medici) with her Son, the Future Ferdinand II (Flint Institute of Arts, 1623) shows his familiarity with the work of Scipione Pulzone, in particular his Portrait of Christine of Lorraine (Uffizi).[3]
During his years in Vienna in 1623 and 1624 he painted in a more painterly style which possibly was under the influence of the works of Hans von Aachen and Josef Heintz. Later, his work became more Baroque, under the influence of Flemish painters such as Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Cornelis de Vos. His Portrait of Prince Waldemar Christian of Denmark (Galleria Palatina) shows the influence of Rubens. His mature style of the 1630s is characterised by its loose and expressive brushwork and lighter palette. The works of the Venetians such as Titian may have led to his lighter palette in the 1630s. Suttermans was for seven years in possession of Titian's Portrait of Pietro Aretino (Florence, Pitti), which was in the collection of the Medici. This work may have inspired his famous Portrait of Galileo Galilei (Uffizi Museum).[3] It was commissioned by Elia Diodati, a jurist who lived between Paris and Geneva and was a good friend of Galileo. After Galileo's death, he donated the portrait to the Grand Duke Ferdinand II. The portrait is a half bust showing Galileo's face on which the light source falls and looking upwards outside the frame. At the time of the painting, Galileo was around 70 years old. The work is executed in a thickly painted texture similar to 16th-century Venetian painting.[13] The presence of Pietro da Cortona in Florence from 1637 may have been another element in his stylistic evolution. From the mid 1640s he returned to his earlier handling of surfaces, with sharp contrasts between light and shadow. An example is the full-length Portraits of Vittoria della Rovere with the young Cosimo III de Medici (Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Mansi, 1646).[3]
Sustermans was a gifted animal painter.[14] In the mid-50s there was a dip in the quality of his output. The reason behind this may have been an increased dependence on his workshop, either because Sustermans was regularly travelling or because of the Grand Duke's imposition of standard prices for anything other than full-length portraits.[3] In the 1660s and 1670s his brushwork became more restrained and he often placed his figures against a dark background with rapid expert touches of highlight.[6]
Selected works
- Portrait of a Lady, oil on canvas (Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California)
- Portrait of a Lady Wearing Pearls , oil on canvas (Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, Ukraine)
- The Senators of Florence swearing Allegiance to Ferdinando II de’Medici, oil on canvas, (Ashmolean, Oxford)
- Portrait of Galileo Galilei, (shown at right) oil on canvas (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)
- Portrait of Galileo, oil on canvas (Uffizi Gallery, Florence)
- Portrait of a Woman, oil on canvas (National Museum of Serbia), Belgrade[15]
- Portrait of the Grand Duke Ferdinando II of Tuscany and his Wife Vittoria della Rovere, oil on canvas (National Gallery, London)
- Vincenzo II Gonzaga, Ruler of Mantua from 1587–1612, Wearing the Order of the Redemeer, oil on canvas
- Portrait of Cardinale Carlo de' Medici, oil on canvas (Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan)
- Maria Maddalena of Austria, Wife of the Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici and Sister of the Emperor Ferdinand, with her son, the Future Ferdinand II, oil on canvas (Summerfield Gallery, Flint Institute of Art, Flint, Michigan)
- The family of Darius in front of Alexander, (Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer, Vilanova i la Geltrú)
References
- ^ a b c d e f Justus Sustermans at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
- ^ ISBN 0870993569. (p. 249–254, v.1; plate 94–96, v.2)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lisa Goldenberg Stoppato, Suttermans (Susterman; Sustermans; Sutterman), Giusto at Grove Art Online
- ^ Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, Antwerpen, 1883, pp. 960–962 (in Dutch)
- ^ Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius, De liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche sint Lucasgilde van 1453–1615, J. E. Buschmann, Antwerp, 1872–1876, p. 457 (in Dutch)
- ^ a b c d e f g Justus Sustermans in the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue
- ^ Gaspard De Wit, Flemish Tapestry Weavers Abroad: Emigration and the Founding of Manufactories in Europe: Proceedings of the International Conference Held at Mechelen, 2–3 October 2000, Koninklijke Manufactuur van Wandtapijten, Leuven University Press, 2002, p. 165
- ^ A. Hajdecki, 'Die Niederländer in Wien', in: Oud-Holland 23 (1905), p. 1-26, 108-128, 25 (1907), p. 9-26, esp. 23 (1905), p. 6-9 (in German)
- ^ a b Filippo 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, Volume 4, V. Batelli, 1846, pp. 473-488 (in Italian)
- ^ Gli artisti italiani e stranieri negli stati estensi catalogo storico ... By Giuseppe Campori, pages 477.
- ^ Jan van Gelder at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
- ^ a b Sustermans, Justus at Treccani Enciclopedia on line (in Italian)
- ^ Justus Sustermans, Portrait of Galileo Galilei at Uffizi Galleries
- ^ Rolf Kultzen, Justus Sustermans as an Animal Painter, The Burlington Magazine Vol. 119, No. 886 (Jan., 1977), pp. 37-40
- ^ Portrait of a Woman, CulturalHeritage.cc Foundation, Accessed 8 October 2013.
External links
Media related to Justus Sustermans at Wikimedia Commons