ALLEGORY DEPICTS IMMEDIATE POLITICS: A PLEA FOR PEACE AND A THREAT OF REVOLT

NOBLES' ART GLORIFIES WAR, BUT THESE WORKS INSIST ON PEACE...

A caduceus (two serpents coiled around a baton) symbolizes the accord of opposites, so wisdom and harmony. In paintings where every detail is politically charged Rubens associates it with Marie alone.

-- Heroic Deeds and mystic figures by R.F. Miflin and R.E. Wolf, 1989,

analyzes the series in depth.

In the first work Mercury points the caduceus toward the line that joins the right hands of Apollo, Minerva and Marie with the abdomens of the Three Graces: Marie unites wisdom, culture and fertility, characteristics that fit her policy of peace and ardent opposition to Richelieu's demand for war.

     The Education of the princess / zoom

One of the next paintings evokes the choice of entering or staying out of the Thirty Years' War (of 1618-1648):

The Meeting in Lyons / zoom 

• Louis carries his scepter like a musket and turns away from his mother, while his charming little brother, Gaston d'Orleans, looks up at her adoringly. Junior princes who led revolts legitimized them and when this work was painted, in 1626, Gaston had rebelled. The scene implies that should Louis refuse Marie's demand for peace, she might back him should he revolt again. 

 He would revolt, four times.  

• The intrepid queen had already escaped imprisonment and led two rebellions. So the threat was not an empty one. 

The king studied the paintings, had them explained to him and left without a word. They may have contributed to Marie's fall. 

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But a dramatic mistake

 was the immediate reason for her eclipse.

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 II.6.4.

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