Portrait of Emperor Ferdinand II

In 1623 the Florentine court lent out its painter. Sustermans went north to Vienna to produce the official full-length state portraits of the new imperial couple, and this smaller pair of canvases came back to Florence afterwards as thanks to Maria Maddalena of Austria, the emperor's sister, who was then governing Tuscany as regent for her young son.

The sitter is Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor. The chain round his neck carries the collar of the Golden Fleece, the Habsburg order, and it is the detail that settles who he is, because this gallery also holds a Sustermans portrait of the Tuscan Ferdinando II, a different man with nearly the same name.

The revolt in Bohemia against his rule had broken out in 1618, and the war it started was five years old when this was painted. It ran until 1648, 11 years after he died.