摄政权的授予

On 20 March 1610, the date traditionally attached to this scene, Henri IV was preparing to march into Germany at the head of an army, and he arranged for the queen to govern France while he was away. The regency was meant to last one campaign. This canvas, one of the 24 Rubens painted for Marie de' Medici's gallery in the Luxembourg Palace, shows that handover. Under a grand arcade the king, in armour, passes her the orb, the sphere that stood for rule over the state, and their son, the future Louis XIII, stands between them. Soldiers with standards wait behind the king, ready to leave. The campaign never began. Within two months Henri was dead, and the queen who was meant to stand in for one campaign was proclaimed regent, an office she held until her son came of age in 1614. Rubens's oil sketch for the composition is in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.