Portrait of Ferdinando II de' Medici

He was 17 when this was painted, and Tuscany was not yet his to govern. His father died in 1621, when he was ten, and his mother and grandmother ruled as regents until he came of age in July 1628.

The picture says otherwise. The canvas is over two metres tall, and he stands full length in engraved armour with a ruff at his throat, a plan of fortifications lying on the table at his side. Tuscany stayed out of the war then burning through Germany, and its military business really was walls, garrisons and the harbour at Livorno, which is the sort of thing that drawing stands for.

He took the government the following summer and held it for 42 years.