Lot 1541 Dα

Maria Magdalena was the youngest daughter of Archduke Karl II of Inner Austria-Styrial and Maria Anna of Bavaria. She married Grand Duke Cosimo II de´ Medici with pomp and ceremony in Padua on 19th October 1608. Her husband, an art connoisseur and supporter of Gallileo, died in 1621 when he was just 31 years old. Together with her mother-in-law, Maria Magdalena then became the legal guardian of the young heir to the throne Ferdinand II. Maria was considered highly educated and a connoisseur in her own right, but she was also an overly zealous supporter of the Catholic League. She died in Passau aged 41 on the way to Vienna and was buried in the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence.
Justus Sustermans was born in Antwerp but moved to Florence in 1620 where he became a court painter and moved into the Grand Duke's palace. He was primarily known for his portraits of the Medici family, many of which are today housed in the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti. This portrait depicts Grand Duchess Maria Magdalena as a widow with a lap dog. Like the majority of Sustermann's works, this piece is neither signed nor dated. However, what we know of the sitter's biography allows the work to be dated between 1621 and 1631.