A Political Ploy

Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, “Peter Paul Rubens, Arrival (or Disembarkation) of Marie de Medici at Marseilles,” in Smarthistory, November 20, 2015, accessed October 19, 2022, https://smarthistory.org/peter-paul-rubens-arrival-or-disembarkation-of-marie-de-medici-at-marseilles/

To the Glory of a Queen of France, in Louvre, accessed October 19, 2022, https://www.louvre.fr/en/explore/the-palace/to-the-glory-of-a-queen-of-france

My piece of choice is Peter Paul Rubens, The Arrival of Marie de Medici at Marseilles, 1621 – 1625. It’s a master baroque piece apart of a cycle of 24 paintings. It took Rubens about 4 years to complete all 24 paintings.

Using the site smarthistory.org, Harris and Zucker give you more insight on Marie’s personal background. You learn of the wealth she comes from with her father being the Duke of Turkey and her husband being King Louis IV. They state that the cycle was dedicated to her ego, for her son was Louis 13th, and she ruled as Queen Regent while after he became of age because she didn’t want to give up her throne. This explain one; how she could ask to commission these 7-foot paintings by Rubens, and two; explains why the painting(s) are super fantasy and adorned with mystical creatures (Christian and Roman alike). In the painting of “The Arrival”, you see all that baroque style in the blatant fantasy with the angel of fame soring above her and the allegory of France bowing. You also have all these mythical sea nymphs as well as Neptune giving al this baroque movement, intertwining, and pushing in the water. Baroque because you see all this movement, but unlike mannerism, its organized and going in a semicircular motion!

When reading about the piece at the Louvre, I gained more insight into why the queen even commissioned the cycle in the first place. When the Queen of France commissioned these paintings in 1621, she was returning from a seven-year banishment by her son over the throne. When she tasked Rubens with the project, he had promised her he would complete the cycle in four years flat. Outside of artistic expression, it was also her using the paintings as a political ploy to tell her side of the story. She used this moment to stage idealized image of her political decisions, from the beginning of her life to the reconciling of her relationship with her son. Rubens used allegorical figures from the Greco-Roman pantheon as well as Christian references to glorify the queen and somehow not insult the king. In “The Education of Marie de Medici”, Minerva, the goddess of arts and sciences, and Mercury, messenger god help her prepare for her future reign as queen. Then in “The Coronation if Marie de Medici at Abbey of Saint Denis”, you see angels flying over her as the pope I believe is behind her, as someone else in status crowns her. You again have this oblong circular motion pulling you between the Queen the angels and the crowd again and again. That baroque organized chaos as well as the intense fantasy, or glamorization of a real moment.

This demonstrates how the Baroque period and reformation really took grasp on propaganda and somewhere down the line stopped using it for solely to get people back to the church. Art was being used in politics and places of power for people to tell their stories on how they’ve seen things in history happen. The Queens cycle to me, is a defining moment in history.