Credit: ©The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9646
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Portrait of Galileo Galilei
Date
19th century
Sitter
Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642, Italian) , Astronomer
Creator
Unknown, Artist
After
Justus Sustermans (1597 - 1681, Flemish) , Painter
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 609mm
width (painting): 508mm
width (painting): 508mm
Subject
Description
Half-length portrait of Galileo, bearded, gazing upwards and to the viewer’s left, wearing dark clothing, with a white collar.
Transcription
GALILEUS. GALILEI
GALILEO GALILEI (1564-1642)
after JUSTUS SUSTERMANS
GALILEO GALILEI (1564-1642)
after JUSTUS SUSTERMANS
Object history
Purchased, mid-19th century.
A copy of the well-known portrait in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, painted in 1636, originally sent to Paris, then later in the collection of Ferdinando II de’ Medici. This work appears in Weld’s catalogue of 1860 [Descriptive catalogue of the portraits in the possession of the Royal Society, by Charles Richard weld (Taylor and Francis, 1860), p.30], but not in an earlier listing of 1834 and must therefore have been purchased between these dates.
A copy of the well-known portrait in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, painted in 1636, originally sent to Paris, then later in the collection of Ferdinando II de’ Medici. This work appears in Weld’s catalogue of 1860 [Descriptive catalogue of the portraits in the possession of the Royal Society, by Charles Richard weld (Taylor and Francis, 1860), p.30], but not in an earlier listing of 1834 and must therefore have been purchased between these dates.
Associated place