1. Rubens and his Wife (Isabella Brant) in the Honeysuckle Bower (1609) PETER PAUL RUBENS --Born 1577 in Seigen, Germany; his father, Jan, was a Calvinist and fled his native Antwerp to escape religious persecution. --Jan Rubens, an attorney, had originally fled to Cologne; after an affair with a princess to whom he served as secretary he was imprisoned and nearly executed. He was released and allowed to settle in Seigen. --Jan Rubens died in 1587, leaving his wife Maria to raise Peter Paul and his 13-year-old brother Philip. --Maria Rubens returned with her sons to Antwerp.

2. RUBENS: ITALY—The Duke of Mantua --In Venice meets Vincenzo I, Duke of Mantua, who was a great patron of the arts, and is offered a job as one of his painters. --His tasks consisted mostly of copying famous works of art and painting original portraits of beautiful women for the Duke’s “Gallery of Beauties.” --The job also gave him access to important people and art collections (including the Duke’s own) and the opportunity to travel around Italy. Self Portrait with a Circle of Friends from Mantua (early 1600s)

3. RUBENS: ITALY—Copies of Roman and Italian masters Drawing after the central group of Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari

4. RUBENS: ITALY—Portraits Marchesa Brigada Spinola Doria (c.1606)

5. RUBENS: ANTWERP Rubens and his Wife (Isabella Brant) in the Honeysuckle Bower (1609) Rubens’s own wedding portrait

6. RUBENS: ANTWERP—Religious paintings The Elevation of the Cross (1610-11), an altarpiece for the Church of St. Walburga, Antwerp Rubens’s first altarpiece in Antwerp

7. RUBENS: MYTHOLOGICAL AND HISTORY PAINTINGS Prometheus Bound (1611-12)

8. RUBENS: HUNTING SCENES Lion Hunt (c.1620?)

9. RUBENS: MEDICI CYCLE --Commissioned in 1621-22 by Marie de’Medici to paint a large cycle of paintings at her new residence, the Palais de Luxembourg, designed in 1620 by Solomon de Brosse. --Marie was the widow of the previous king, Henri IV, and the mother of the current king, Louis XIII. She had also served as regent in Louis’s youth, but was generally disliked by the French people, even by her son. --Rubens’s cycle was intended to glorify her and present a positive image of her role in French politics and society. Marie de’Medici by Rubens (c.1622)

10. MARIE DE’MEDICI --Born in Florence, Italy, in 1573. --Her father was Grand Duke of Tuscany and a member of the wealthy Medici family; upon the death of Henri IV’s first wife, her father secured for her the title of Queen of France by the payment of a huge dowry. --She married Henri IV by proxy in 1600, but upon her arrival in France things went poorly—she quarreled not just with Henri but openly and violently with his mistresses. --Bore him a son, Louis XIII. Marie de’Medici by Rubens (c.1622)

11. MARIE DE’MEDICI --Upon Henri’s assassination in 1610—which she reputedly may have had a role in—she was recognized as the Regent of France, who would rule the country in the place of Louis XIII (then 9-years-old). She placed at the head of her government her own lover Concini, also an Italian. --In 1617, Louis attained full powers of king and had Concini assassinated and Marie banished. --In 1621, due to the influence of Cardinal Richelieu, Louis allowed her to return to Paris. Marie de’Medici by Rubens (c.1622)

12. RUBENS: MEDICI CYCLE The commission: --24 paintings—21 scenes showing events from Marie’s life and portraits of herself and her parents (a second planned series, of events from Henri’s life, was never completed). --Begun in 1622, completed 1625. --In order to mask the often mundane and contentious reality of Marie’s life, Rubens surrounded her with allegorical figures and used metaphors from classical mythology to create scenes implying triumph and apotheosis, and justified Marie as a symbol of virtue. Marie de’Medici by Rubens (c.1622)

13. RUBENS: MEDICI CYCLE Scene 1: The Destiny of Marie de’Medici  Zeus and Hera look on from above The Fates spin the  thread of Marie’s destiny  The job of the third Fate, Atropos, was to cut the thread of life, and her usual attribute was scissors. Here she is without them, implying the privileged and immortal nature of Marie

14. RUBENS: MEDICI CYCLE Scene 2: The Birth of Marie de’Medici The goddess Juno presents the infant Marie to an allegorical  figure of the city of Florence

15. RUBENS: MEDICI CYCLE Scene 3: The Education of Marie de’Medici  Apollo (the Greek patron of the arts) and Athena (Goddess of Wisdom) help attend to Marie’s education The Three Graces offer her beauty 

16. RUBENS: MEDICI CYCLE Scene 6: The Arrival of Marie de’Medici in Marseilles A personification of France  welcomes her Fame trumpets to alert  France of her arrival  Sea gods, tritons, and sirens lead her ship to shore Marie 

17. RUBENS: MEDICI CYCLE Scene 21: The Triumph of Truth  An allegorical figure of Truth is unveiled by time, to show that in the end time will reveal that the rupture between Marie and Louis was due to the falsity and scheming of others  Marie and Louis in Heaven; he offers her a laurel crown with two joined hands and a heart inside of it

18. RUBENS: MEDICI CYCLE Louis XIII and Marie de’Medici by Rubens 1630: Marie plots a coup against Louis and his chief minister; she is again exiled, this time permanently.