Equestrian portrait of Mary de' Medici (1575-1642) and the triumph at Juliers, ca. 1622-1625

Around 1622 Marie de' Medici, the widow of Henri IV of France, hired Rubens to fill a whole gallery of her Luxembourg Palace with her own life story, 24 large canvases in all. This is one of them, and it shows her as a warlord. She rides a white horse in the helmet of Athena, goddess of war, a commander's baton in her hand, above a battle she is meant to be winning: the taking of the German town of Julich in 1610. The real Marie had backed the winning side there but reached the field late and did very little. Rubens knew the difference and painted the flattering version anyway, because that was the commission. Of the whole series, this warrior portrait was given the place of honor, on the far end wall of her gallery.