030

  • Marie de' Medici

  • 1631
  • Attributed to Aton (Anthony) Van Dyck (Flemish 1599-1641)
  • Oil on oak panel
  • 25.4 x 19.8 cm., 10 x 7-3/4"
  • Gift of Professor Irma Adelman through Catherine Carter Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts, Paul A. Anderson Art History Collection, Augustana College 2004.25

Essay by Mary Em Kirn, Professor Emerita of Art History

Marie de' Medici (1573-1642), the 58-year old Queen Mother of France, gazes stolidly at us from this small oil sketch. The 58-year-old Queen Mother of France wears a black oval cap preferred by widows (her husband Henri IV was assassinated in 1610) (Saward 98-99). Her dress, with its stiffly starched white band collar, features fashionably slashed, wide puffed sleeves that end in double cuffs at her wrist (Gordenker 83). The tight bodice is held together with pearl buttons and adorned with a brooch, her only jewelry. Cupped in her hand are flowers similar to those held by women in van Dyck portraits. Marie's features are not idealized as evidenced by her prominent nose, pursed lips and jowly jaw. On a shelf, next to Marie, rests a crown topped with a fleur-de-lis design that references her relationship to the French royal family. Although this oil sketch is not signed by the artist, the thick impasto dots and small slashes of white paint evident on the curtain and Marie's right sleeve and bodice are visual signatures of a painting style associated with van Dyck.

The early 1630s were watershed years for both Marie and Anthony van Dyck. In 1631, Marie and her son Gaston had been expelled from the French court by her oldest son King Louis XIII for plotting to overthrow his major advisor, the Cardinal Richelieu.They initially took refuge in Antwerp (Barners 332-333). Just five months after Marie's visit to van Dyck's Antwerp studio in the fall of 1631, the artist moved permanently to England and by 1632 had become principal painter to King Charles I and his wife Henrietta, one of Marie's daughters. Some scholars have even speculated that van Dyck's move to England could have been facilitated by Marie, who might have recommended van Dyck to her daughter Henrietta (Wheelock 76).

Also in the early 1630s, van Dyck initiated a project known posthumously as the Iconography—a contemporary "who's who" (Depauw and Luijten 75). Because of Marie de' Medici's status as a patron of the arts, her engraved portrait is included in both early editions. In all, van Dyck is associated with over sixty grisaille oil sketches that were used by engravers as models for the Iconography (Spicer 357-363). Grisaille refers to images dominated by tonal ranges from white to black, a technique that can be traced back to medieval manuscripts and Renaissance panel paintings (Baer 32). Scholars disagree about the level of van Dyck's direct participation in the creation of these small oil portrait sketches and many believe that at least some of these images were done by his pupils (Depauw and Luijten 81-82). Clearly, the spontaneity of the paint application is evident in this grisaille oil sketch of Marie de' Medici. The incompleteness of the sketch results in forms that are suggested and surfaces that are not precisely delineated. As in some modern paintings, we have to use our imagination to fill in these surface details. In this portrait sketch of Marie de'Medici painted over 370 years ago, we are still able to envision the creative skill of the artist.