The Council of Gods (Sketch for the Medici Cycle)
1622 Bavarian State Painting Collections
About this artwork
This work is a preparatory oil sketch for a larger canvas in the Marie de' Medici cycle, commissioned for the Luxembourg Palace. It depicts an assembly of Olympian deities deliberating on the affairs of the French state.
Did you know?
This sketch was part of a monumental series commissioned by Marie de' Medici to glorify her life and political reign. Rubens used these smaller sketches to obtain approval from the Queen for his complex, allegorical compositions before proceeding to the final large-scale canvases.
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The Council of Gods (Sketch for the Medici Cycle)
Peter Paul Rubens, 1622
