Date : approx. between 1622 and 1625
Dimensions : 1,16 m x 2,47 m
Material : Oil on canvas
Acquisition : Sénat (1815)
Ecole flamande - Période Baroque
| The Portraits of The Queen's Parents
Item 24 on 24
Flemish and Northern Painting
Painting (Portrait)
Areas related
Austria
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 | Description |  |
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The remaining three paintings are portraits of Marie de' Medici, her father Francesco I and her mother Johanna of Austria. On either side of the fireplace in the gallery are the portraits of the Queen's parents. The portrait of the Queen's father, Francesco I, is on the right and faces the passageway towards Marie de' Medici's private chambers. Francesco I is depicted wearing an ermine-lined mantle with a cross around his neck which represents the Tuscan order of Saint Stephen which his father founded. The portrait of the Queen's mother, Johanna of Austria, is on the left at the place where visitors enter. She is shown wearing a gown of silver cloth with gold embroidery and wears nothing that suggests her esteemed background. The model, or overall design, for this portrait of Johanna of Austria goes back to a painting by Alessandro Allori that was then copied by Giovanni Bizzelli. Rubens must have seen these paintings and therefore influenced his own style for depicting the Queen's mother. Although, surprisingly, Ruben's version is considered even less remarkable than the models. This portrait of Johanna of Austria is overall an inexpressive image of a women. He excluded the traditional 16th Century hieratic poise for a relaxed interpretation, where she wears regularized drapery and Rubens adorns her in that of the state of always being sick and weak. In contrast, no model for the portrait of the Queen's father is known, although it is questioned if he used ideas from one from Paris that, in which he wanted to convey the authoritative appearance of historical figures. Specifically, the statues of Fracesco and Ferdinando de Medici. The two portraits are stylistically very different, and even out of place, from the rest of the paintings in the gallery. These paintings of her parents in Marie de Medici's reception hall look bleak in comparison to the portrait of Marie, where she is looking beautiful if not vain. Although Rubens made great use of allegorical images throughout most of the paintings in the gallery, the two portraits of the Queen's parents are compositionally straightforward and unremarkably executed. Moreover, they are considered to be far from "likenesses" of either sitter.
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Commande de la reine Marie de Médicis à Rubens
En 1622, la reine Marie de Médicis, veuve d'Henri IV et mère de Louis XIII, commande à Rubens une suite de vingt-quatre tableaux pour décorer la galerie occidentale du premier étage de son palais du Luxembourg à Paris (actuel Sénat).
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