Studio of Justus Sustermans

This painting is a repetition of a work by Justus Sustermans, which formerly belonged to Cardinal Carlo de' Medici, and is now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence (inv. no. Poggio Imperiale 3635 rosso), datable to circa 1630/40. The title names the two old women, who must be those known to have supplied the Medici court with produce from the farmhouses belonging to the family around Florence, along with Peter the Moor, who is recorded in several documents as a servant of the Medici.

It is an unusual subject for Sustermans, habitually associated with the official family portraits of the Medici. The picture emerges rather from the Florentine genre of carnival or burlesque painting, which reached its apogee in the 1620s, exemplified by artists such as Giovanni da San Giovanni, Jacques Callot and Filippo Napoletano, and extended into Florence and the Medici court in the form of theatrical entertainment. The figures are vigorously characterised in minute detail and Sustermans casts each figure in their 'role' with distinguishing attributes. The connection with theatre and the taste for jokes probably also accounts for the indecent gesture the Moor is seen to make with his right hand behind the back of the 'Cecca di Pratolino'.¹ 

1. This mocking gesture also occurs in some Caravaggesque subjects, such as the Fortune Teller in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (inv. no. 6).