The Apotheosis of Henri IV

The man who killed Henri IV in May 1610 was François Ravaillac, a Catholic zealot from Angoulême who had convinced himself that the king, once a Protestant, meant to wage war on the Pope. He was put to death in public before the month was out. Twelve years later, planning this scene for the king's widow, Rubens left all of that outside the frame. There is no street, no assassin and no blade. On one side the dead king is lifted into the sky among the gods. On the other, Marie de' Medici, now regent for her eight-year-old son, receives the sceptre, the orb and the rudder of state, the steering oar that stood for the work of government.