Medvedev Dmitriy: http://www.proza.ru/2012/08/20/1377
At Fool’s Day*, Marie made a decision that fooling around is over, and now is a good time to fool Louis, to get the stupid reign back, while making the king look like a total buffoon. But looking a bit forward, we have to note, that the natural stupidity and the eleven years of idiocracy left didn’t fetch her the expected results and thus, in the day of the Dupes**, she was sent to be air-headed elsewhere. But the insidious viper didn’t know what the future holds, so at the end of the month she indulgently made peace with her son, while keeping the venomous comments to herself and the sneaking for later.
Rubens depicts Marie sitting on the throne, putting a Putty*** with a wreath as a decoration, as a sign for wisdom and martyrdom. By her side stands cardinal de Richelieu, who played the peacemaker from the beginning. The other cardinal, who set the pact on paper, leads Louis, bearing an olive branch, symbolizing peace. The latter walked in dressed in his birth suit, so his mother recognized him immediately.
“You’ll make it far”. She thought, looking at the approaching Louis, and getting ready to tell him where to go and what to do with himself. But Wariness, with her unwarily falling out breast, nodded her head warily. And Marie, based on her companions’ silent agreement, reaches for the olive branch, as a sign of final concordance.
“Wait! The king is naked!”- Insisted Maugis from the first moment he saw the painting. “Why would he tiptoe naked around his own mom? Off with the porn, I say!”
“You should speak. I wasn’t even a cardinal back then!” Modestly noted Richelieu. “Say, my dear artistic friend, how about being more accurate in painting? And what’s with the title “Pieces in Anjou…” I mean “Peace in Anjou?” It was signed in Angouleme, and Anjou was just offered to Marie as part of the agreement.
In order to pacify the patrons and to make the subject of the canvas work more real, Peter Paul partially covers Louis’s stuff with a fig leave and adds the stuff of Hermes. Meaning, a winged helmet, a matching pair of flapping shoes and a stiff staff in his left hand. Unfortunately that also made the god of deceit look like he’s hiding his caduceus somewhere in his back… at the back of his thighs, which only points out the deception. Still, it didn’t make the picture look more censured.
That’s about the reason for Richelieu not being repainted, puzzling historians and making them seek out the familiar goatee in the paintings of cardinals of that time. As for Wariness’ breast falling out, no one gave any instructions. Besides, everyone already got used to Rubens considering such decollete as another form of saving matter, instead of implying anything erotic. So, the painting was titled “peace agreement in Angouleme****” and that was the end of editing it.
* Fool’s Day- April 1st.
** Day of the Dupes- November 11th 1630, when Marie De Medicis’ followers started the day from celebrating the fall of the king and ended it in prison.
*** Putti- plural for Putto, Latin for “boys”
**** The initial title was “The pacification between Marie De Medici and her son in Anjou”.