Marriage of Henry IV and Maria de' Medici

In the autumn of 1600 Henri IV was at war. The Duke of Savoy had refused to hand back Saluzzo, a small marquisate in the Alps claimed by France, and the king was campaigning in Savoy when his wedding took place in Florence on 5 October. So the marriage was made by proxy, with a stand-in for the groom. For most of the queen's gallery Rubens let gods and allegories carry the story. Here, as the Munich museum points out, he chose a straight history picture, a real church and a real ceremony, which gives the scene the air of a record. Rubens was in Italy at the time, in the service of the Duke of Mantua, whose wife was Marie's sister, and whether he saw the wedding himself is still debated. The war ended in January 1601, with France giving up its claim to Saluzzo in exchange for land on its own side of the Alps.