This official portrait of Marie de’ Medici demonstrates the exceptional technical mastery of Pourbus the Younger and his consummate art of court portraiture.
The queen, mother of Louis XIII, is depicted in all her majesty, dressed in a sumptuous black gown enhanced by a spectacular pleated ruff and lace cuffs. The artist displays remarkable virtuosity in rendering materials: the lustrous satin of the dress, the pearlescent transparency of the pearls, the starched rigidity of the collars and cuffs. Every vestimentary detail is meticulously observed and rendered with goldsmith-like precision, revealing the influence of the Flemish portrait tradition. The background adorned with decorative motifs and the silver-studded chair participate in asserting royal status. This work, created six years after Pourbus’s appointment as the queen’s personal portraitist, perfectly illustrates the aesthetic of early 17th-century court portraiture.
Further information
- Marie de’ Medici, in 1616, by Frans Pourbus the Younger
- 99.7 × 77.5 cm (39 1/4 × 30 1/2 in.)
- The Art Institute of Chicago, displayed in European Painting and Sculpture, Gallery 208
- https://www.artic.edu/artworks/78591/marie-de-medici
Frans Pourbus the Younger (1569-1622) belongs to an illustrious dynasty of Flemish painters specialized in the art of portraiture. Heir to the talent of his father Frans Pourbus the Elder and his grandfather Pieter Pourbus, he transcends geographical boundaries to serve the greatest European courts. Trained in the Spanish Netherlands, he worked successively in Brussels for the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, then in Mantua for the Gonzagas, before settling in Paris where Marie de’ Medici appointed him as her official portraitist in 1610. An undisputed master of official portraiture, Pourbus excels in the meticulous representation of precious fabrics and attributes of power, perpetuating the great tradition of Flemish realism while adapting it to the requirements of French monarchical representation.
