George Cooke after Rubens. Marriage of Henry 4th at Lyons

After the proxy marriage in Florence, Marie de Medici returned to France, landing at Marsailles in an event that Rubens painted with three “peachy and plump” Nereids beneath the ship (but which engraving is not among those in Melville’s collection). The present engraving represents the next painting in the sequence, in which the “marriage” at Lyons is an allegorical representation of the first actual meeting between Maria and her husband. He arrived in Lyons considerably after she did (being engaged in military and other activities), but there they were married in person by the same prelate who had performed the proxy ceremony in Florence. The painting (fig. 1) is also known as The Marriage Consummated in Lyons.

In the words of the Historic Gallery, “Rubens has expressed this subject by a noble and ingenious allegory. The two lovers, under emblems of Jupiter and Juno, are borne upon clouds. Henry offers his hand to his wife, whom he contemplates with affection. Mary, in a modest and almost respectful attitude, receives the testimony of a passion, which leads her to the highest honours. Hymen, crowned with flowers, his torch in his hand, points to the constellation Venus, under whose influence this union is celebrated. Several Cupids wanton around Henry IV, and the rainbow, symbol of the approaching serenity, glitters in one part of the heavens. Underneath is the City of Lyons, seated on a car, drawn by two lions; she views, with admiration, the august personages. The back-ground presents a portion of the city where the event took place” (HG 7, n. p.)

The subsequent commentary, after cataloging the coloring of the original painting, notes that Rubens has placed “the City of Lyons in demi-tint” so as to attain “an air of solidity without making this part of the picture vie in splendour with the principal group.” In the outline engraving, the foreground group are as distinctly rendered as those in the clouds. The lions pulling the cart, the eagle supporting the king, and the peacocks high in the sky are all rendered with striking clarity. Juno’s two peacocks are now as lovingly intertwined as are the goddess and her lover, part of the artistic alchemy whereby Jupiter and Juno “are themselves transformed into the King and Queen of France” (Millen and Wolf 77).

The upper left quadrant of the painting is gorgeous in color, with the sumptuous blue and gold clothing of the Goddess-Queen harmonizing with the blue peacocks in the gold chariot and the blue and gold of the rainbow. The rich crimson drapery of the God-King harmonizes with the blue-gold of the Goddess-Queen, but the attentive gaze he directs down to her open breast is countered by the rise of his leg under the wing of the ascending eagle on the right, suggesting that his lower body is not entirely devoted to the charms of his royal consort. The awkwardness of his leg and the intervention of the eagle are even stronger in the engraving than in the painting itself.