Medvedev Dmitriy: http://www.proza.ru/2012/07/18/1467
“The grass sure seems greener at the neighboring city.” Thought Marie on her way to Lyon. “Well, I mean to fix that green.”
She spent a quarter of a century dreaming about a crown, refusing any other offers of hand, heart or any other body parts which didn’t have anything to do with bearing a crown. It was important for her to show her old dresses as new ones in a fresh company of another country. To show her best side to the French beau monde, although it’s hard to choose a good side, when one seems better than the other. But how can it be anything but? Can a spoiled princess say, like normal people do: “Yes, I have plenty of flaws, so forgive me, perfect people”? Her self opinion already set a place under her heel for some pathetic monarch, who should’ve been already despairing for her presence to be seen at Lyon.
But Henry the 4th didn’t seem to be losing sleep in his desire to see his perfect spouse, and didn’t prepare a celebration in Lyon to honor her glorious arrival. More than that, the king went as far as to be a bit late to their first encounter, just by mere three-four-five-six… days, showing by doing so that he didn’t even think about rushing mindlessly towards her. The unique combination of something old, something new and something with quite a bit of gold in her shoe, represented by the mature daughter of a billionaire, was far from being at the top of his “to do” list. And the lack of hurry to take her from the trip to the party had several serious reasons.
First of all, the dowry of six hundred thousands crowns (the biggest in the history of France), minus the debt to the house of the spouse, was already transferred to the treasury. Therefore Henry-number-four had his debt foregone, and was fore-ward about admitting getting married for the money alone, because nothing counts as much as a six-figure number. Second, he had to comfort his mistress, Henrietta, after a miscarriage of the royal firstborn, a fact that had her dreams of a throne thrown out the window, and the string of fate wasn’t there to tie the ends together. Last, but not the least, in order to make a good impression, he had to bring down his men down the mountains, which, much like in the case of Grand Duke of York, looked down when they came down, probably due to a three-months long war.
Marie was far from impressed by his presence with a mere convoy of two thousands horsemen. The total of Florentian escort amounted to seven thousand of Italian free-loaders, which didn’t mind anything for free, including the first favorite Concino Concini, who loved when women conc… well, you know what, with a name and surname of this sort. Henry probably didn’t mind having something similar, so after performing his last duty to the Medici, the spousal one, decided to ignore similar calls in the future. As for Marie, after she slept with a guy on the first date, mostly because she didn’t even met that bearded Navarre person before that day, finally became a full-out queen.
But Rubens doesn’t go into all the details that served as a prelude to the marriage, but instead he depicts the evening rendezvous itself. The atypical painting of the series- the roles of gods are given to the newly-wed. Hymney pokes the bride with a torch, as if saying “bow to your husband”. Henry seems to lack his usual smile while assessing the realistic appearance of the wife, differing significantly from the portrait he’d recently seen. Judging by the looks, which included a sober one, he needed something strong to put the “wow” on this “how?”, but it’s yet to be produced in this century. Under them, Lyon (city) serves as a background for an old-fashioned two-wheeled chariot, drawn by a couple of Lions, which carries Lyon (a woman) with the local coat-of-arms. And under the evening six-pointed star, much like in the rest of the narrative images of Rubens, you can see the giyurs*… I mean Amours. It’s so sweet, that it can give cavities to any romantic, and serves to conceal a quarrelsome, dissolute and un-pretty queen with a lousy temper and unbecoming habits.
Now that the oversweet path is set, on it comes to light “The birth of the Dauphin in Fontainebleu”. Usually, one can’t know what to expect from those expecting women- a boy or a girl. But Henry scores from the first shot and gets an heir, and such a triumph has to be depicted. Thus, on this canvas, Her Honor seems tired, but pleased, as she observes her infant in the hands of Health, who proves that despite all the oddities, the clown prince is sane and sound. The queen is yet to understand that the future of the blossom of her bosom is just the beginning. Above her leans Femida, since Claud Maugis insisted on emphasizing the nickname Louis the Just. But the goddess is depicted without her blindfold, which can be read as a bias in her judgments. Below, some sort of high breed hound stares up, standing for the polyamorous monarch, who can’t control his amour and who didn’t bother to tell between boys and girls.
But that’s the normal part, it keeps getting better (and more interesting), to say somewhat ironically. By the background of red drapes (how can one do without), stands the cruel Kibella, which seems logical, considering the internal family issues between the mother and the son. You can also see Glory here, looking like the first favorite, which gave the king children to try and beat the queen. Somewhere at the distance you can see Lucifer on his carriage, saying: to all my enemies and haters I send lots of love and warmth- let the bastards burn. And Lucina on the left, with five babies, symbolizing the other children of the French matron from Italy, finishes off the main critics of the project, since whether all those younglings came from Henry or not was quite unclear.
Off course, Maugis and Richelieu insisted that the pictures must show a real story of Marie Medici, but didn’t compromise the noble line. Therefore, starting from this picture, they vetoed all the unwanted personas, such as the milk-sister depicted on the “The Wedding by Proxy of Marie de' Medici to King Henry IV”, who is at fault of the corruption and decay of France, or her husband Concini (the picture “The Disembarkation at Marseilles”, the queens lover and a buffoon). Also, so help us God, to avoid staining the memory of the late Henry IV. Therefore no bastards from any side are to be mentioned. And off course, we’ll have to do without implication of suspicious relations, such as Henrietta, who was jealous of Marie, which had her hands on the kings’ treasures.
A commoner is lucky: if he mixes up his wife with his lover, by bringing the first flowers and the second – the paycheck, they’ll just be pleased. But for the kind-hearted monarch with a spoiled spouse, this triangle meant running between them, following the sacred drinking rule: “Lover after dear- you’re in the clear. Dear after lover- run for cover”. Also, Marie had connections, which connected us to a possible conflict (pardon the tautology). As for Henrietta, she possessed a very sharp tongue, which could cause some damage, as far as the French go, no matter how it sounds – about a concubine.
*Giyur- conversion to Judaism, also symbolized by the six pointed Star of David.