Henry IV Seizing the Opportunity to Conclude Peace, also known as Occasio

The gallery of Marie de' Medici's life was only half the commission. The matching wing of her Paris palace was to carry the life of her murdered husband, Henri IV, and around 1628 Rubens began working the scenes up in small oil sketches like this one. The subject is a proverb made visible. Occasio, favourable opportunity, is the figure being pushed forward by Saturn, and the long lock of hair falling over her forehead is the part you are meant to catch, since Roman writers described her as bald at the back and impossible to hold once she has gone past. Peace urges her towards the laurel-crowned soldier on the right. The cycle was never painted. Marie quarrelled with Cardinal Richelieu, lost, and was driven out of Paris in 1631, and nine sketches like this one are most of what survives of the plan.