Henri IV recevant l'ambassadeur d'Espagne

Ingres painted this little picture in 1817, in Rome, for a French count close to the newly restored Bourbon court. That timing matters. The Bourbons were back on the throne after Napoleon, and their most loved ancestor was Henry IV, the king remembered as warm and human. Here Ingres catches him on all fours, letting his children ride his back, at the very moment the Spanish ambassador is shown in. Marie de' Medici sits nearby. The story was a popular anecdote about the king's easy charm, and pictures like this, small and jewel-bright in a medieval-flavoured style, were much in fashion. On the back wall Ingres hangs a copy of Raphael's Madonna of the Chair, a quiet bow to the Italian master he revered.