Baroque Blog

Introduction

Peter Paul Rubens, a Flemish baroque artist, was commissioned in 1621 to create a series of works celebrating the lives of Marie de Medici and her husband. This painting depicts her arrival by ship to Marseille when she was set to marry Henry IV. She is met by soldier wear the fleur-de-lys that represent France and at the bottom of the painting Neptune and the daughters of Nereus are present as they carried her safely and protected her on her journey across the Mediterranean her. Overhead Fame sounds his trumpet glorifying her as she leaves the ship.

A Royal Battle Zone

While Rubens never completed the works to commemorate Henry IV, he did complete Marie’s cycle of 21 paintings. This project was constantly being disrupted by arguments between Marie and her son. A tumultuous and dramatic are the two words that best describe the resulting marriage. Henry IV was a notorious cheater and his habits cause Marie to become resentful and angry. She also was involved in some political scandals making some of the events Rubens needed to depict risky for his career. He got around this slippery situation by using classical literature to create an uncertainty of what the characters are in these events shedding a more positive light on Marie.

Elements

I would say that one of the most apparent elements in this piece is the symbolism. Rubens used a lot of symbolism to represent aspects of her arrival in this piece. He used a soldier bearing France’s national symbol to represent her arrival to France. There is also the presence of characters from Greek Mythology to represent the sea she had traveled as well as how the trip had gone. Rubens use of colors also represent what class the subject of the painting is. He paints the ship with gold and the boardwalk was covered in red carpet.

My Opinion

I really enjoy this piece and would love to have it hanging up in my house one day. I really love the colors used in this painting and how the women are painted. I really just enjoy looking at the human form and seeing how the ideals of beauty are presented in art. I think that it really is an image that represents a grand entrance and really elicits a feeling of awe.

Citations

“Baroque Art and Architecture – Important Art.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/movement/baroque-art-and-architecture/artworks/#pnt_2.

“The Arrival of Marie De Medici at Marseille.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arrival_of_Marie_de_Medici_at_Marseille.

“The Landing of Marie De Médicis at Marseilles.” Artble, 19 July 2017, www.artble.com/artists/peter_paul_rubens/paintings/the_landing_of_marie_de_medicis_at_marseilles.