Medvedev Dmitriy: http://www.proza.ru/2012/07/05/1229
Once upon a time, when meaningless rulers forced historians to scribble dull memoirs about their exalted life, Marie de Medici ordered Rubens to create the world's most expensive and large-scaled comic strip, starring her dearest self. Twenty four canvases, depicting her life, were meant to be placed on the empty walls of the newly-built royal habitat. The Flemish artist of the baroque era sized up the two long promenades of Luxembourg castle, estimated that the sixty thousand franks were far below what he believed to be a sufficient fee for his time and began his smear campaign with five works drawn in a narrow-screen definition. As if saying, let’s stick them between the windows, so no one will frame him for being narrow-minded.
Making sketches of crown-bearing ancestors was far from difficult, simply by copying their faces from other painters’ portraits. Meaning, here you go, face up the faces, and file all complains about Marie to her manufacturers. Still, the rest of the paintings of the narrative cycle required a slight demonstration of creativity, by stuffing them with symbolic details, as requested by the main heroine and her first advisor- the soon to be cardinal Richelieu. The treasurer Maugis also worked his magic into the discussion, most likely about high quality comics with his logo on them*, but these words didn’t made it through the history to Stan Lee. So, the artist got VS and then XO**, and got to work on the patron’s face, shrouded by mythology.
“Marie Medici as Minerva”, with angelic monarch butterflies of both genders (or was it the monarch with two butterfly-winged angels), the royal scepter instead of the expected pike and the statue of Nike instead of owl, was far from being like the wise warrior goddess. And that’s despite the thick clue of “make a knight” puzzle scattered at her feet. Still, the queen approved the masterpiece, probably thinking “who said the perfect woman doesn’t exist? I can see it by myself… the lying bastards!” The author indeed was highly complementing the looks of the half-centennial dame***, driven by infamous woman’s logic: long hair needs to be cut, short hair- to add length, curly hair has to see that straight is great, and those smooth haired women should just curl up and dye. So Marie’s flowing mass is even less real than the rest of the picture. Then again, realism wasn’t expected. Later, three of the pictures attracted flames, so they were hanged around a fireplace.
In the “Destiny of Marie de Medici”, Marie herself had no part, visibly or literally, but the three goddesses of fate were already there, looking as if the national program for weight loss implied that everyone else’s loss was their gain. One goddess made the thread of the future queen’s life, the other measured it, and the third one… well, there was a little ethic dilemma: should the last Moira have more of a chance to prove herself in the field of scissoring, or should her daddy dearest, Jupiter (also present in the drawing), keep his offspring from playing with the sharp object, dangerous both for her and the yet unborn queen. To resolve the tension, Peter Paul depicted something weird, possibly sharp-ish, but hard to distinguish from the background.
Immediately after this little lie, a huge “Triumph of the Truth” is created, where it (meaning the Truth) is raised by Chronos to Marie, with her grown baby. The presented Verity, according to the author, should attest to the absolute peace made between the mother and her son, who, as opposed to the religious fear of his creator, wasn’t afraid to send his mother to… well, they didn’t have elderly homes back then, but as close as he could get. Therefore, the literally naked Truth is that the parent and the child were constantly at each others’ throats and the peace was just make-belief. Maybe that’s why the naked maiden of Time tries time and time again to break from the grip of the old and bold grandpa-time (is it me or did I really repeat myself here?), wanting nothing less than to play the part of Oprah in this family conflict. Ever since then, despite the significant drop in fatal outcomes of family conflicts, people are in no hurry to call up the Truth as their witness.
By the fifth painting, which ended up as a finale for this royal edition, they ran out of spaces between windows and the silhouettes above toilet doors weren’t part of the deal, so the artist had to conform to the standard format, which was set in the next pieces. There was only a couple of centuries to go before the invention of photography, but the author only had four years, and the dates had begun to press.
* «ÌÑ» - Maugis Claude, also the logo of «Marvel Comics», world’s most popular comic book company.
** VS- Valuable suggestions, XO- Exalted orders. Also means quality of Brandy and Cognac.
*** Bicentennial Man- by Isaac Asimov.
**** Moiras- the Greek goddesses of Fate.
The paintings at the photos are set in chronologic orders, just as they are described in the text.