Rubens's Arrival (or Disembarkation) of Marie
de Medici at Marseilles, Medici Cycle

Peter Paul Rubens, Arrival (or Disembarkation) of Marie de Medici at Marseilles,
1621-25, oil on canvas, 394 x 295 cm (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

Speakers: Drs. Beth Harris and Steven Zucker

This is one of 24 canvases that comprise the Medici Cycle, commissioned for the
home of Marie de Medici, the Palais du Luxembourg (which now houses the French
Senate and which she called the Palais Medici), the cycle loosely depicts the life of
Marie de Medici. Marie was the granddaughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, the
daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the Archduchess of Austria. She
married Henri IV, the King of France. In 1610, the day before the King was
assassinated, she took the throne as Queen of France. She ruled as regent until
her son, Louis XIII, took power.