RUBENS, PETER PAUL (1577-1640)

"La Paix confirmée dans le Ciel (The Final Reconciliation)" (1709)
engraved by Gaspard Duchange (1662-1757)
from the series 'Life of Marie de Medici' (1710)
44.5 x 34cm
Signed in plate
*private collection, Sydney
 
"Francois de Medici; Grand Duc de Toscane" (c.1707) by Flemish Master, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). This original, posthumous etching and engraving drawn by legendary French painter, Jean-Marc Nattier, and engraved by premier French engraver, Gerard Edelinck, was produced around 1707, one of the last works completed by the engraver. Rubens was a favourite artist of the Medici dynasty and was commissioned several times to produce portraits and mythological works of and for the family. The House Of Medici was an important Italian banking and political dynasty; Francois (The Grand Duke Of Tuscany) was the father of Marie, Queen of France! This is a very rare original engraving in great condition, which is also represented in several important collections, including the British Museum, Royal Academy, Metropolitan Museum NYC, and National Gallery of Victoria.
 
Peter Paul Rubens is a famous Flemish Master painter who lived during the Dutch Golden Age. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens's highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation. Rubens was a painter producing altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.
 
This original, posthumous engraving drawn by legendary French painter, Jean-Marc Nattier, and engraved by premier French engraver, Gaspard Duchange, was produced in 1709. The work comes from a series of plates depicting the 'Life of Marie de Medici' (1710), showing Divine Justice slaying a many-headed hydra. This was meant to symbolize the death of the king’s falconer turned supreme commander, the Connétable of Luynes, part of the cause of the strife between Marie and her son. This is a very rare original engraving in impeccable condition, which is also represented in several important collections, including the British Museum, Royal Academy, NGV, and National Gallery in Canberra.