I must confess that I have been putting off writing the latest
installment of the Marie de’ Medici story.
The next couple of paintings just have not inspired me that much. However, there are still more spectacular
multi-story displays of hubris to come, so we will go through these two quickly
to get to the gods and power-grabbing.
If you are new here or interested in catching up, there are links to the
ongoing Medici Cycle series above.
First up: "The Birth of the
Dauphin at Fontainebleau."
Here we see Marie just after giving
birth to Louis XIII. First we might
note that the woman who just popped out a baby is wearing way more clothes than
most of the people in the birthing chamber.
Evidently childbirth is much easier and neater when done on a throne.
She has handed over her precious
newborn to the person you most want to have holding a child: a mostly naked man
wrapped with a snake. Well, it’s either
a snake, or the baby has one freakish umbilical cord.
Then we flash forward several years, to “The Consignment of
the Regency.”
Here dear Henry hands over charge of his empire to
Marie. Unfortunately she realizes that
it is just a ball and not an actual empire, so he has to go off to war to get
her one.
This is pretty low-key for this series. Apparently it was originally envisioned as a
much more awesome painting with snakes and (probably) naked ladies, but it was
all toned down to paint (ha ha) Marie in a positive light, which was a bit
tricky due to circumstances that arise a bit later…
TO BE CONTINUED.
WITH
MORE NUDITY AND SNAKES.
I wonder if the snake was the midwife - it's certainly the best-equipped one to crawl under the queen's skirt. In the Regency painting, the lady-in-waiting on the far right is making eyes at the painter. Makes me wonder if he'd recently crawled under her skirt.
ReplyDeleteAll in all there was a lot of under-skirt-crawling, which given it was the French court doesn't surprise me.
DeleteIt's the poor little dog that I feel sorry for - scarred for life by witnessing the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteI think that being in a birthing chamber was a standard part of puppy training back in the day--the horror quiets them down significantly (although the process sends mixed messages about bodily fluids indoors).
DeleteMaybe snake guy needed that accessory to assert his manhood in the presence of all those women. He would just look like Julia Child without it
ReplyDeleteMy mother warned me to beware of a man's one-eyed snake, but I never suspected she meant it literally... Who knew it was the masculine equivalent of a handbag dog?
DeleteThese are so much more...sane than the previous installments. And it disturbs me to say that a snake hanging around a baby is "sane." In the bottom one, Henry kind of looks like Don Quixote or Baron Munchausen.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost as if she had a fit of sanity for the production of one painting where she was like, "What are you doing? Get those gods and sea creatures and lions out of there! I am but a woman making my mark in the world." And then she snapped out of it, like someone having a 48-hour flu, and went back to hallucinations of divinity.
DeleteI would just love to give birth on a throne...outside...near a tree. It seems so hygienic that way. Maybe that's why there's a snake. To take care of any potentially pestilenced rodents which may come near.
ReplyDeleteI bet that saves money on pest control. Modern hospitals may turn to snake-based janitorial solutions at any time...
DeleteIs that a horse pulling a chariot across the sky in that first picture? Man they really used to pull out all the stops for a birth back then.
ReplyDeleteThat is the doctor on his way to his next patient. Doctors being the only ones who could afford solid-gold chariots, of course.
DeleteI was also going to ask what is going on with the horse in the sky, seems like we're missing out on the more interesting event.
ReplyDeleteIt's possible that they just had sun gods in chariots deliver children instead of storks. It seems a bit classier, anyway.
DeleteI suspect the snake symbolizes Marie's character. After all, she knew about (if not planned) the assassination of the king...the day after her coronation as queen. Altogether snaky.
ReplyDelete