The coming of age of Louis XIII

In October 1614 Louis XIII, who had just turned 13, was declared of age, and with that his mother's regency formally came to an end. For most regents this would be the moment of stepping back. In Rubens's design it turns into Marie de' Medici's entrance. Her son takes over the rudder of the ship of state, and she stays close at his side. The museum reads her part here as that of an adviser, watched with approval by France, the figure who stands for the realm itself. That was the version of 1614 she wanted in her gallery, a handover that still left the king's mother at his elbow. The panel never went to Paris. Like the other Munich sketches for the cycle, it came to the museum from the picture gallery of the Bavarian electors.