Rubens, Petrus Paulus (Siegen (Westphalia), 1577 - Antwerp, 1640)
Henri IV receives the portrait of Marie de Médicis and allows himself to be disarmed by Love
Oil on canvas
Height: 3.94m; Width: 2.95m
The Louvre
AFTER SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS The Presentation of the Portrait of Marie de' Medici to Henri IV
Oil on canvas
394 x 295 cm.
Private collection
This is a small-scale, later copy of the vast canvas by Rubens, depicting Henry IV being presented with a portrait of Marie de' Medici by Cupid and Hymenaios, the god of marriage (See above). The series was commissioned by Marie de' Medici, widow of Henry IV, in 1621, for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris, to be completed to coincide with the marriage of her daughter Henrietta Maria to Charles I of England, in 1624. upiter and Juno are depicted as an ideal of marital harmony, surveying Henry IV as he falls in love with the image of Marie de' Medici. A personification of France stands behind Henry, also showing her approval of the future union and sovereignty. In reality Henry and Marie did indeed exchange a number of portraits. They were married by proxy on 5 October 1600. More on this painting
Marie de' Medici (French: Marie de Médicis, Italian: Maria de' Medici; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV. Marie served as regent of France between 1610 and 1617 during the minority of her son Louis XIII. Her mandate as regent legally expired in 1614, when her son reached the age of majority, but she refused to resign and continued as regent until she was removed by a coup in 1617.
A member of the powerful House of Medici in the branch of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, the wealth of her family caused Marie to be chosen by Henry IV to become his second wife after his divorce from his previous wife, Margaret of Valois. The assassination of her husband in 1610, which occurred the day after her coronation, caused her to act as regent for her son, Louis XIII, until 1614, when he officially attained his legal majority, but as the head of the Conseil du Roi, she retained the power.
Noted for her ceaseless political intrigues at the French court, her extensive artistic patronage and her favorites, she ended up being banished from the country by her son and dying in the city of Cologne, in the Holy Roman Empire. More on Marie de' Medici
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish Baroque painter. A proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, Rubens is well known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.
In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. More Sir Peter Paul Rubens
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