We come now to the series of twenty-one large allegorical paintings,
designed by Rubens and executed mostly by his pupils, from 1621 to
1625, for the decoration of the Luxembourg Palace for Marie de Médicis,
whose by no means inspiring career had to furnish the subjects for
the series. It was a thankless task which could only be accomplished
by a _tour de force_—by removing the events of the queen’s life from
actuality into the sphere of mythology and allegory. That the strange
mingling of the real and the ideal should sometimes verge on the
grotesque was almost inevitable—as inevitable as that the work of
his assistants should have failed to do full justice to the master’s
conception, even if it was “pulled together” by the easily recognisable
touches added by Rubens to the finished panels. The florid exuberance
of design and colour was entirely in keeping with the purpose and the
surroundings for which the paintings were intended. It is impossible
here to enter into a full description of this extensive series, or
to define exactly Rubens’s share in each of the eleven pictures. We
must confine ourselves to the brief enumeration of the subjects in
the order in which they are now to be seen in the new Rubens Gallery.
The series begins with _The Fates spinning the Destiny of Marie de
Médicis_ (No. 2085). Then follow _The Triumph of Truth_ (No. 2105);
_Henri IV. receiving the Portrait of Marie_ (No. 2088); _The Marriage
of Marie by Procuration with Henri IV._ (No. 2089); _Marie landing at
Marseilles, Nov. 3, 1600_ (No. 2090); _The Marriage at Lyons, Dec. 10,
1600_ (No. 2091); _The Birth of Louis XIII. at Fontainebleau, Sept.
27, 1601_ (No. 2092); _Henri IV. leaves for the War with Germany and
entrusts the Government to the Queen_ (No. 2093, Plate XXI.); _The
Coronation of the Queen_ (No. 2094); _Apotheosis of Henri IV. and the
Queen’s Regency_ (No. 2095); _The Queen’s Journey to Ponts-de-Cé_ (No.
2097); _Exchange of the Two Princesses, Nov. 9, 1615_ (No. 2098); _The
Prosperous Regency_ (No. 2099); _The Majority of Louis XIII._ (No.
2100); _The Queen’s Nocturnal Flight from Blois_ (No. 2101); _The
Reconciliation of the Queen with her Son_ (No. 2102); _The Conclusion
of Peace_ (No. 2103); and _Marie’s Interview with her Son_ (No. 2104).
But _The Birth of Marie de Médicis, at Florence, on April 26, 1575_
(No. 2086); _The Education of Marie by Minerva, Mercury, Apollo, and
the Graces_ (No. 2087); and _The Gods in Olympus protecting the Queen’s
Government_ (No. 2096), which belong to the same series, have been
placed in another room.
Of the first and the last paintings the Louvre owns the original
sketch on one panel, by Rubens, for _The Triumph of Truth_ and _The
Fates spinning the Destiny of Marie_ (No. 2110), the other preliminary
sketches being at the Hermitage and the Munich Gallery. It is
interesting to note that all these sketches are designed in a very
light key, almost in grisaille, with touches of rose and other tender
colour notes, so that apparently Rubens’s assistants were allowed great
liberty in the matter of colour.