Queen Marie de Médicis
Guillaume Dupré, French, about 1576 - 1643
1624
Bronze
Overall: 4 1/2 × 4 1/16 in. (11.4 × 10.3 cm)
Overall: 4 1/2 × 4 in. (11.4 × 10.2 cm)
Weight: 120 g (0.3 lb.)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Michael Hall Esq. in honor of Roger Arvid Anderson, Class of 1968
S.993.10.1
Geography
Place Made: France, Europe
Period
1600-1800
Object Name
Sculpture
Research Area
Sculpture
On view
Inscriptions
Around, retrograde: MARIA AVGVSTA GALLIAE ET NAVARAE REGINA; below: G DVPRE F 1624
Label
Since the creation of the portrait medal in the early 15th century, women have been important patrons of the genre. Anne de Bretagne’s medal was among the earliest French examples, made to commemorate her post-wedding journey to Lyon and the unification of Brittany and France in 1500. Taking the same format as men’s medals, women’s portraits presented their power while also accounting for the gendered hierarchies of the period. Elaborate clothes and jewelry signal women’s status, as seen in the depictions of Maria Leonora of Cleves and Margaret of Parma. Playing with imagery, women could also present their power in relationship to men. Diane de Poitiers is semi-nude, suggesting her special role at court as the mistress of King Henri II. His wife, Catherine de Médicis, meanwhile, appears as a widow, a position of virtue and dignity in 16th-century France. Also represented as a widow, the famously powerful Marie de Médicis is surrounded by lettering in reverse, a falsely modest suggestion that her strength was but a reflection of her son, King Louis XIII.
From the 2024 exhibition Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art, and Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections
Exhibition History
Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, Citrin Family Gallery and Engles Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 23, 2024–March 22, 2025.
Provenance
Michael Hall, New York, New York; given to present collection, 1993.
Catalogue Raisonne
Kress, no. 568
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