The Senators of Florence swearing Allegiance to Ferdinando II de' Medici
by SUSTERMANS, Justus, Oil on canvas, 101 x 138 cm
This painting is recognized as a preparatory study for the great canvas depicting the same historical and eulogistic subject carried out by Justus Suttermans in 1625 and hung the following year on the first floor of the Pitti Palace; the canvas is currently exhibited in the Uffizi.
The work represents the artist’s most ambitious piece, a unicum of his career as official portrait artist to the Medici court. The scene captures the moment of the oath of allegiance sworn by the Senators and other important Florentine figures to the young Ferdinando II in the Hall of the Five-hundred in the Palazzo Vecchio on March 11, 1621.