FLEMISH SCHOOL. oo00000000 RUBENS. 000000000 FRENCH MUSEUM. Having, in this picture, to treat a subject that resembles in some degree the Landing of Marie de Médicis at Marseilles, and wishing to avoid any repetitions, Rubens has taken a very different view of the scene. He has represented, in the background, the city of Lyons, and in front, an allegorical figure of the same city, passing before the princess, on a car drawn by lions. Profiting from the freedom that allegory allows, he has designed the city with its eyes turned towards heaven, and beholding Henri IV and Marie de Médicis, under the forms of Jupiter espousing Juno. The artist wishes to make it evident that the marriage was consummated at Lyons, to which ceremony all the anterior ones were introductory. This picture has been engraved by G. Duchange. |