Medvedev Dmitriy: http://www.proza.ru/2012/07/24/922
During the work on the “Coronation in Saint-Denis” canvas, Rubens received a list of witnesses, who must be present at the painting at any cost. While finishing one grandee after the other, on whom it literally rains gold from the treasury by the hand of Wealth and Prosperity in the famished France, the artist somehow forgot about the king himself. He just had to slap on some paint over the table to make it look like an off-topic statue with a balcony, on top of which the royal mug was scribbled. Let everyone think that it’s a deliberate emphasizing of the soon-to-come death of the monarch, because who cares what the wind blows, let’s see for whom the bell tolls.
The king was assassinated on the very next day after the coronation. Like any marriage which didn’t end by a divorce, death had to do this one apart. It’s such an adorable aspect of the marriage vows, over which the women ponder why they’re being torn asunder. To keep the suspicions off herself, Marie insisted that Henry died from a natural cause of a heart attack. Well, it’s natural for a heart to stop after being attacked directly by a knife. Besides, that’s what you get for not sending 10 carrier pigeons to your friends and breaking the chain.
But nobody really bothered to imply that she might be involved. The Catholic fanatic Ravaillac, who literally found a way into a man’s heart, led by the principle of “a healthy knife in a healthy body”, took the blame upon himself. It’s no wonder that he ended up horsing around, following four horses at the same time*. At least half his body turned up all right. Well, at that time they supported the right for bare arms, and were nice enough to help a person who was torn by hard decisions. Later Medici made a speech about her husband, something along the lines of “men like him had very deep personalities, some as deep as six feet under”. What can one do, since nothing is eternal under the moon, not spouses, not feelings, nor beds (its’ breaking was heart breaking- who’d expect such a feat from it), and even the Tower of Pisa wasn’t going to lean that way for long (back then it was quite straight). The people listened to her and scattered, grouching about the end of the reign of the law, in order to make place for a new low.
Despite that, the painting “The Death of Henry IV and the Proclamation of the Regency”, the common folk, dressed in uncommon clothes, kneels and begs the queen to rule them. And to support that claim, Decina offers Marie a ships steering wheel, and France- the globe of reign, which, just to say, she already gave away on a previous painting. Marie, dressed in mourning clothes, smiles, as she receives the gifts, which symbolize her future reign: half the population will be globally poor, while the other half can take whatever-it-is that looks like a shovel with a hint. From which it’s obvious that the queen is thinking about her people, although nobody knows exactly what. I suppose, in the best case, it was something along the lines of: “I know what to feed the people, but I wonder whether they’ll swallow it.”
At the same time, the left plot line of the painting details the story about the gods tearing the king apart from the green dragon he’s been chasing** and carry him to the skies, to the sounds of symphony composed by Victory in the honor of his own decomposing and the half-covered Glory without which he died, with her trophy staff. It sounds a bit gloomy, so let’s rephrase it: the king, in laurel wreath, gains immortality, while below him you can hear the ecstatic howls of Victory, along with semi-Glory-ously nude something covered in feathers. Rubens also took up painting the Olympic team in the golden skies, but decided to hold back the idea, until his next creation.
“The Council of Gods” doesn’t depict the council itself, although it has all the major stars of the solar system. Everyone is busy with their work, except Zeus (Jupiter), who really pays attention to the bowing and scrapping queen. All in all, this work is the most loaded with details, while being ambiguous about the symbols. Aside from the abovementioned planetary all-stars, you can find here the goddess of Peace with a handful of arrows, Juno with a golden yoke for the egg-laying doves (France and Spain), which are tossed up by Cupid through the sphere of the Earth, Europe in bliss, Concordance with her bling and Flora minus her Fauna. At the right corner, somebody wants to use someone, or to be used by him…. Oh, that’s Apollo and Minerva, chasing away Discord, Wrath, Jealousy and Deceit- all who seem to be the queens’ constant followers.
At the end we got something chaotic but somewhat epic, with lots of hints regarding the atmosphere prevailing after the chance of the politic climate. And since he learned his lesson from the first picture of this triptych, Rubens left an empty place for the door frame in the clouds.
* Regicide was punished by quartering by horses at the square.
** In this context- a symbol of death.