Circa 1620. Grand Duke Cosimo II Medici, Knight Of The Order Of Santo Stefano

Grand Duke Cosimo II Medici, Knight of the Order of Santo Stefano.
Large portrait representing Cosimo II Medici (1590-1621, Florence) with a rare depiction of the Medici fleet near Livorno, with tower Meloria.
The Duke wears clothes with the insignia of the Military Order of Santo Stefano recognizable by the large red cross.

Original Early XVII century painting. 

Oil on canvas, relined.

In good condition, profetionally cleaned in year 2022. 

Few minor repaintings and restorations.

This portrait is a rare and important historical document about tuscan expansion on Mediterranean sea.

The Grand Duke points with his hand to the ships of the Tuscan fleet, created precisely in that period, following the foundation of the port of Livorno. The Order of St. Stephen's fleet had the task of protecting the Mediterranean sea from attacks by pirates and Turks. We know that in 1611 the naval expedition was undertaken even as far as Asia Minor.

Under the command of Jacopo Inghirami the Tuscan fleet faced six galleys
Turkish commanded by the famous pirate Amurat Rais the Younger.

On one of the ships represented as a ship in the year 1617, Tommaso Fedra carried out the tests of a secret instrument devised by Galileo Galilei.
The apparatus designed by Galilei greatly interested the Grand Duke Cosimo II, and it was an instrument which should have allowed, in addition to the sighting of enemy vessels, the determination of the
distance between the observer and the sighted vessels.