Author Description

Excerpt from Rubens, Vol. 2 The History of Marie de Medici and in the other that Of Henri IV. He was to begin with the former, do what he could of it at home, and return when he had painted eight or ten pictures. We are convinced that Rubens received the order for the Medici gallery with enthusiasm and that he set to work full of courage and confidence in himself. On the 13th September, 1621, a few months, even a few weeks, before he was hidden to Paris, he wrote to William Trumbull: everyone has his special grace: my talent is such that no enterprise, however vast in quantity and diversity of subjects, ever conquered my courage In this case, indeed, the task was immense, and calculated to spur on the genius of this inexhaustible creator. He had to paint the lives of two royal persons passed in the midst of the most brilliant court of the time; to decorate the most splendid palace with an innumerable series of compositions, and to recall to being episodes of dazzling magnificence, scenes of war and peace, and events in family and in public life: for him it was the realisation of a mighty dream. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.