Peter Paul Rubens
(Flemish, 1577-1640)


Marie de Médicis as Bellona (1622-25).
Oil on canvas.
Musée du Louvre.

Certainly, it was not the rather heavy features of the Medici family, particularly evident in the queen, that had attracted Henri IV, but the scale of her dowry.

Rubens nevertheless contrived to render her portrait agreeable. He disguised her here as an attractive Bellona.