Group portrait of Domenica delle Cascine, Cecca di Pratolino and Pietro Moro

Almost everyone Sustermans painted was royalty. These three were not. They came from the edges of the Medici household: Domenica delle Cascine, who sold ducks and hens, Cecca di Pratolino, a countrywoman from the grand duke's villa estate who also played the fool at court, and Pietro Moro, a man who had almost certainly reached Florence enslaved. A letter from one of the Medici brothers describes painting the peasant women for amusement during the quiet hours after hunting at the villa of Pratolino. The archives confirm all three were real, named people rather than types. Sustermans gives them the same steady, close attention he gave grand duchesses. The picture's own history is tangled enough that it was only recognised as his work in 1977.