Artist: Marin Bourgeois Or Bourgeoys Or Le Bourgeoys
Date: 1594
Museum: Musée de l'Armée (Paris, France)
Technique: Huile
The equestrian portrait of Henri IV is one of the two paintings by Marin Le Bourgeois that have been preserved. His name is traditionally associated with the battles of Henri IV as a weapons maker, and he and his brothers were considered the inventors of the flintlock in the mid–17th century. His pictorial work remains closely tied to weaponry. Other than his interest in a portrait of the King, this painting is most importantly one of the last images of a French sovereign in full armor. This image of the warrior king is part of a context of winning back territory and centralizing military power during the religious wars. The presence of a fortified town in the background, in the form of a square surrounded by hills and crossed with a river, suggests that this panel refers to one of the sieges carried out as part of the fight against the League, and subsequently against Spain, whether it be Rouen, besieged from 1591–1592, or Paris, which was captured in 1594. The painter gives a detailed depiction of the war, where cavalrymen, foot soldiers, and artillerymen are portrayed in great detail. The sovereign dominates the foreground, mounted on a bay horse. He is wearing blackened armor with no helmet. With a white sash around his waist, a sign adopted by the Catholics who rallied to Henri IV, he is holding a baton of command. This artwork contributed to a new boom in equestrian portraits, heir to the Renaissance condottiere effigies, and exudes the subject
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