Sands after Rubens. Henry 4th setting out to War

The young boy between the king and the queen in this engraving is their first child, the dauphin, the future Louis XIII, whose birth was the subject of the previous painting in the cycle, engraved as The Accouchement of Marie de Medicis but also known as The Birth of the Dauphin at Fontainebleu. The original painting for the present engraving (fig. 1) has more recently come to be known as The Consignment of the Regency.

In the words of the Historic Gallery: “About to depart for Germany, and to carry into execution those plans which were to change the face of Europe, Henry IV surrenders to the queen, the administration of the kingdom. Such is the historical fact which Rubens has expressed in a very ingenious manner. In this picture the king presents to Mary de Medici a globe, of a blue colour, embroidered with fleurs-de-lys, of gold, the emblem of France. Behind Henry the principal officers of his army, in their military costume, are observable. The dauphin is between the king and the queen, adjoining whom are Prudence and Fidelity. The scene passes in an open gallery.” Calling “this picture . . . one of the most beautiful of the collection,” the commentator objects only to “the contours” of Henry’s legs and the “antique” costume of the allegorical female figures (HG 6, n.p.).

The engraving, like the painting, masterfully centers all attention on the king, the queen, the boy, and the globe. In actuality, Millen and Wolf point out, “there was no sad leavetaking but only an official declaration conferring the regency on the Queen in the event of the King’s absence or decease.” By inventing this fictional scene from 1610, Rubens was providing the Queen, during the court intrigues of the 1620s, with “an outright political challenge to those who contested the Queen’s authority” (116). Rubens was also retrospectively providing the Queen with an image of affection from her son, the Dauphin, who looks up lovingly at her as his father consigns him, along with the Regency, to her care. In Melville’s engraving, the affection from the Dauphin for his mother is less evident than in the painting. The engraving does, however, give a clearer image of the dog whose front paws are reaching up to the Queen’s dress; in the painting, the dog looks more like a bad patch of fabric.