24 Paintings to the glory of the Queen de Medici

In 1577, Rubens was born in the town of Siegen, which was then a part of the Holy Roman Empire. But the circumstances of his birth were far from proper. His father Jan was having an affair with Anna of Saxony, the wife of the prominent Dutch political figure William I of Orange. Jan and Anna even had a child, and eventually they were found out, leading to Jan’s imprisonment.

Jan died in 1587, and Rubens’ mother Maria Pypelincks took him to live in Antwerp in the Spanish Netherlands. Living with his mother, the boy had a deeply Catholic upbringing. This no doubt led to his later commitment to the church and its protracted fight against Protestantism known as the Counter-Reformation. Many of his greatest pieces would end up being painted in the service of Catholicism.

Pretty soon, Rubens won commissions from churches and even took on a diplomatic role from time to time. This allowed him to travel Europe and endlessly study the art owned by prominent kings.

He was young, but Rubens was already creating masterpieces. 

For instance, consider The Fall of Phaeton (1606). This piece was completed before the artist was 30, showing off a tremendous ability to handle complex, large scale paintings.

His mother fell ill in 1608, and so he rushed back to Antwerp to be by her side. Despite his effort, Rubens was too late. He spent time in the city to mourn, and while he was there, he found the city of his youth to be reborn — a bustling economy, political stability, and renewed cultural vigor. He started up a workshop there, becoming a court painter for multiple monarchs as well as handling outside commissions. And that next year, he married Isabella Brant.

While this period of his life began with the death of his mother, it proved a successful time for the artist. He quickly rose to prominence as the leading painter in a time and place that gave Europe some of its finest artwork — the Flemish Baroque.

And thanks to the growing use of printing presses, his name spread all across the continent. He collaborated with master printmakers to make copies of his work that appeared in books that were now selling far and wide.

Marie was born in Florence, Italy in 1575. 

At the time, her family the Medicis were among the richest and most powerful in Europe. 

The Medicis had a long history as leading bankers and merchants, but they were also major patrons of the arts. They helped artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, supporting the masters that would birth the Renaissance.

This connection between art and power no doubt influenced Marie for her entire life.

Yet things have a way of changing. 

After a long delay, Marie was finally crowned Queen of France on May 13, 1610. Within 24 hours, Henry was assassinated — thus making Marie the Regent. The killer knew Marie, and the nearest defender of Henry was a long time friend of the Queen. This led to rumors that Marie, seen as an Italian-born interloper, had plotted the murder of the King of France.

Whether that was true or not, she was now vested with power until her oldest son could take the throne.

She created strict rules for the royal court and lavished the arts in France with her patronage. And it turned out, she loved power. When her son Louis XIII became King, she did not cede the throne to him. After a few years of this, he eventually rebelled and exiled his mother for four years.

When she finally came back to Paris, she withdrew from political schemes. Instead, she built herself the ultimate retreat in the middle of the city: the Luxembourg Palace.

But every great palace needs artwork. And who was the best artist in all of Europe? Rubens.

While the lives of many queens and kings have captivated people for millennia, Marie’s life was not so charming or exciting. In fact, it wasn’t filled with many high points at all. Much of her life came down to marrying Henry and giving birth to Louis. After all, her role as Regent had the whiff of scandal — including rumors that she participated in the assassination of her own husband.

It was a shame because Marie herself was such an accomplished person. She was a former ruler of France, a talented musician and artist, and a learned reader. But all of that was scant material for 24 paintings worth of glamorous scenes.

And yet, being a genius of Rubens’ stature, the work came out as a thundering epic. How did he make such a mundane story sizzle into such a spectacle?

He both added to the story of the Queen and made sure to make as many mythological allegories as he could. This allowed him to focus on much grander characters and scenes. 

The actual marriage of Marie and Henry was far from a legendary culmination of the ultimate romance. Henry wanted to marry his mistress, but he was convinced to take Marie as his bride instead. 

His advisors told him this would grant him access to the enormous Medici fortune. To make the union even more attractive, the French state owed the Medicis a massive debt due to his financial aid during wartime.

Yet in this painting, Rubens gives us a marriage of a god and goddess: Juno and Jupiter (the Roman versions of Hera and Zeus). These two unite as giants in the sky, fully attended by the symbols of their respective deities. Below, a chariot is drawn by lions, as the city of their meeting was Lyons, and in the background lies the city itself — the only shred of reality in the entire work.

In this single image, we see just how effectively Rubens’ used allegory and symbols to elevate his subject matter and turn the quotidian into the extraordinary. The resulting image is stunning in its scale and the psychedelic display of mythological beings.

To get a sense of their special bond, consider the portrait painted of Marie by Frans Pourbus, sitting only two rooms away from the Medici Cycle in the Louvre. In this painting, the essence of the woman is not captured. Though the painter is accomplished in his craft, he is unable to bring the Queen to life. But whenever Rubens painted her, it was like she could let her guard down, trusting that she was in good hands.

Perhaps a large part of their friendship was Rubens’ open mindedness. Marie was a smart, capable, and shrewd person stuck in a world that did not recognize her because she was a woman. Rubens, however, was forward thinking on the subject. One imagines they could sit for hours and discuss art, Marie finally finding her intellectual equal.

Rubens also gave her something she never had before. Being an Italian, many in the French court never trusted her. Her own husband clearly only used her for money, not making the slightest effort to protect her from humiliation. But Rubens created a cycle of paintings that heralded her as the Queen of France, that raised her up to the literal heavens. It was an act of respect that she no doubt had been waiting for a long time.

Their friendship lasted to the very end. Rubens loaned her a house he owned in Cologne in 1642. In July of that year, while staying in the artist’s house, she died.

Coming from (almost) any other person in human history, the above quote would seem arrogant to say the least. But coming from Rubens, it feels more like well earned self-knowledge.

Every piece in the Cycle is filled with delights, drama, and daring artistic innovation. While we can’t go into every painting in detail here, it’s worth taking a few examples to see just how marvelous these works are.

 This work is wider than the standard size of the other paintings in the cycle, and its subject matter takes up the added space well.

Here is a moment of absolute pandemonium. To the left, the King rises up to the heavens, carried by the gods Jupiter and Saturn (see his scythe, rather like the Grim Reaper). Onlookers are lost in their grieving. But from this sad scene Rubens leads our eye to the right. His characters lean toward the Queen sitting on her throne, being handed the power over the French state.

Although this gets rather close to the biggest scandal of Marie’s life, it elevates the events to mythic proportions, turning this calamity into something preordained and necessary, if tragic.

To grasp just how impressive this series of paintings is, see this astounding room with one of our tour guides. That way, you get to experience the fun of interpreting all the symbols that Rubens has encoded into the work while marveling at the skill of his hand.

He used mythology, royal history, and the secrets of his time to pack meaning into every part of the canvas. Deciphering this with a trusted guide is fun and rewarding!

All of the tour guides we work with have extensive education in art history, and they can give you a thorough understanding of everything in the Louvre, including the Medici Cycle.