The Majority of Louis XIII

This canvas by **Peter Paul Rubens**, painted around 1622-1625, belongs to the allegorical cycle devoted to **Marie de' Medici** that the queen mother commissioned to decorate the Luxembourg Palace. It represents, in allegorical form, the declaration of **Louis XIII**'s majority, proclaimed on 20 October 1614: the young king, depicted taking the helm of a ship symbolising the State, thus receives the conduct of the kingdom while his mother continues to watch over him from the heavens. This work illustrates the tension between the king's legal coming of age and the regent's continued de facto hold on power until 1617, a paradox that the painting, commissioned by Marie de' Medici herself, strives to resolve in her favour.