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| 1978, Paintings by Rubens Marie de Medicis, Central Africa Republic 500 F cancelled |
1978, Paintings by Rubens Marie de Medicis, Central Africa Republic 500 F cancelled
Text: 500 FCFA Empire Central African
Condition: Ø = used/cancelled
Title: Paintings
by Rubens
Face value: 500
Stamp Currency: F
Country/area: Central
African Republic
Year: 1978
Set: 1978 Paintings by Rubens
Stamp number in set: 1
Basic colour: Multi colour
Exact colour:
Usage:
Definitive
Type: Block
Theme: Art,
Nudism (nudity), Paintings
Stamp subject:
NVPH number:
Michel number:
Yvert number:
Scott number:
Stanley Gibbons number:
Printing office:
Perforation: K 13½ : 14
Size: 90
x 177 mm
Watermark: Withour watermark
Paper:
Printing: Offset
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Paintings by Rubens Marie de Medicis
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) was a
highly influential artist in Northern Europe, widely believed to have played an
important role in shaping the style and visual language of his time. The
overseer or creator of more than three thousand woodcuts, engravings and
paintings in various mediums, Rubens's works include historical, religious and
allegorical paintings, altarpieces, portraits and landscapes.
The Marie de' Medici Cycle is a series of
twenty-four paintings by Peter Paul Rubens commissioned by Marie de' Medici,
wife of Henry IV of France, for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. Rubens received
the commission in the autumn of 1621. After negotiating the terms of the
contract in early 1622, the project was to be completed within two years,
coinciding with the marriage of Marie's daughter, Henrietta Maria. Twenty-one
of the paintings depict Marie's own struggles and triumphs in life. The
remaining three are portraits of herself and her parents. The paintings now
hang in the Louvre in Paris.
This particular painting in the Marie de'
Medici Cycle is noteworthy for its uniqueness in execution. While the other
paintings were completed at Rubens's studio in Antwerp, The Felicity of the
Regency of Marie de' Medici was designed and painted entirely by Rubens on the
spot to replace another, far more controversial depiction of Marie's 1617
expulsion from Paris by her son Louis. Completed in 1625, this is the final
painting in the cycle in terms of chronological order of completion.
Here Marie is shown in allegorical
fashion as the personification of Justice itself and flanked by a retinue of
some of the primary personifications/gods in the Greek and Roman pantheon.
These have been identified as Cupid, Minerva, Prudence, Abundance, Saturn, and
two figures of Pheme, all indicated by their traditional attributes, all
bestowing their bounties on the Queen. (Cupid has his arrow; Prudence carries a
snake entwined around her arm to indicate serpent-like wisdom; Abundance also
appears with her cornucopia, also a reference to the fruits of Marie's regency.
Minerva, goddess of wisdom, bears her helmet and shield and stands near Marie's
shoulder, signifying her wise rule. Saturn has his sickle and is personified as
Time here guiding France forward. Fame carries a trumpet to herald the
occasion. These personifications are accompanied in turn by several allegorical
figures in the guise of four putti and three vanquished evil creatures (Envy,
Ignorance, and Vice) as well as a number of other symbols that Rubens employed
throughout the entire cycle of paintings.
