Peace and Reconciliation Being Confirmed in Heaven

After her husband’s death, Maria de’ Medici became politically active in a time marked by conflict. She vigorously defended her convictions, which later gave rise to disputes with her son Louis XIII. In 1617, he exiled her from Paris, and she did not return until 1621. Rubens depicts their reconciliation as an apotheosis: mother and son rise up to heaven. A figure of Justice fights a monster that symbolizes the minions who had stood between them.