A girl in a rose dress bends over a book held in the lap of a helmeted goddess, while a laurel-crowned musician plays a bass viol beside them and three naked women look on from the right. Peter Paul Rubens painted the childhood of Marie de' Medici as a lesson given by gods, between 1622 and 1625, for her gallery at the Luxembourg Palace. The Louvre catalogues the canvas as L'Instruction de la reine, and it hangs with the rest of the cycle in the museum's Galerie Médicis.
The princess is a child with reddish hair and a jeweled band in it, bending over a sheet laid on a book. The goddess beside her wears a dark helmet with a white plume over a blue and gold robe, and guides the child's hand. The Louvre names her as Minerva, goddess of the arts and sciences. To their left a young man crowned with laurel, in red drapery, plays a bass viol with a bow. The Louvre identifies him as Orpheus, and not Apollo.
A god in a winged helmet dives head first out of the top of the picture, white cloth streaming behind him. The Louvre names him as Mercury, god of eloquence, descending from the sky. Three naked women stand at the right with their arms around each other, and the nearest holds a small garland of flowers over the child's head. The Louvre calls them the three Graces, one of them crowning Marie.
At the bottom of the canvas lie a marble head on its side, a palette with brushes, a lute and a second stringed instrument, with a dark oval plaque carrying a bearded face in relief beneath the viol. The Louvre reads the marble head as a bust of Plato and the instruments and palette as symbols of the fine arts the queen liked to practice. The scene is set in a rocky grotto with a waterfall at the back, ferns growing from the rock at the upper right, and a red curtain drawn across the top left.
The canvas is 394 by 295 centimeters, the size of most of the narrative canvases in the cycle. The Louvre's catalogue title is L'Instruction de la reine, the Instruction of the Queen. The museum's English page calls it The Education of Marie de' Medici, and it is also known as The Education of the Princess.
The Louvre reads the composition as a version of two older images: the child Virgin taught by Saint Anne, and the traditional figure of Grammar, or Pedagogy, instructing a pupil. Orpheus, the poet and musician, and Minerva stand in for the princess's parents as her teachers. The museum describes Orpheus as a symbol of the moral education useful to a future sovereign, and notes that a memorandum in the Baluze papers already called the picture the Instruction of the Queen.
The three Graces, in the Louvre's reading, show the exchange between the fine arts and nature, between body and mind. The bust of Plato on the ground stands for the mind. The museum's page on the gallery puts it more simply: Minerva and Mercury help groom Marie for her future as a sovereign.
Oil sketches for the composition survive in Munich and in a private collection, the latter sold at the Dorotheum in Vienna on 24 March 1999. The Louvre cites both in its notice.
The Graces were not always naked. The Louvre records that their nudity was lightly veiled from before 1685, when the writer André Félibien saw the gallery, until the nineteenth century. Removing the veils led to a rather brutal cleaning of the canvas, which caused a public controversy in the 1860s.
Marie de' Medici, born in Florence in 1573, was the widow of Henri IV and the mother of Louis XIII. She commissioned the series in 1622, when she had just returned from the exile her son had imposed on her in 1617. The paintings were for the west gallery on the first floor of the Luxembourg Palace, which she had built in Paris on the model of the Pitti Palace.
Rubens agreed to paint the whole series in four years and delivered it in 1625. The Louvre counts twenty-one narrative canvases about four meters high and three portraits, and states that they are entirely by his own hand, contrary to what is often said. The Education is the third canvas in the sequence, after the Fates spinning the queen's destiny and her birth.
The canvases passed to the queen's son Gaston d'Orléans and entered the royal collection in 1696. They were moved to the Louvre in 1790, went back to the Luxembourg for exhibition from 1802 to 1815, and returned to the Louvre for good in 1816. Since 1993 the whole cycle has hung together in Room 801 of the Richelieu wing, the Galerie Médicis.
The Louvre's list of open galleries for September 2026 marks the Galerie Médicis as closed. Check the museum's current list before visiting.
Close reading
The lesson takes place in a grotto, and the picture divides between the teachers and their pupil on the left and the three Graces on the right. Close up, the objects on the ground turn out to be a small inventory of the arts, instruments, a palette and a marble head.
1.Mercury dives in head first
A god in a winged helmet comes down head first from the top of the picture, bare legs in the air, white cloth streaming around him. The Louvre names him as Mercury, god of eloquence, descending from the sky to join the lesson.
2.Orpheus plays a bass viol
A young man with a laurel wreath and red drapery draws a bow across a large bass viol held upright between his knees. The Louvre identifies him as Orpheus, the poet and musician, and not Apollo, and reads him as a symbol of moral education for a future ruler.
3.Minerva's plumed helmet
The goddess beside the child wears a dark helmet with a white plume and gold trim over a blue sleeve and gold robe, and points one finger at the page. The Louvre names her as Minerva, goddess of the arts and sciences, and reads her and Orpheus as the princess's educating parents.
4.The princess bends over her page
The child wears a rose dress with a jeweled band in her reddish hair and bends over a sheet laid on a book, a writing instrument in her hand. She is Marie de' Medici as a girl. The Louvre records that a memorandum in the Baluze papers already called the picture the Instruction of the Queen.
5.A Grace holds a garland over the child
The nearest of the three women at the right stretches out a hand holding a small garland of flowers above the child's head. The Louvre reads this as one of the three Graces crowning Marie.
6.The three Graces stand together
Three naked women stand with their arms around one another, the middle one with a bracelet on her upper arm, the third turned away. The Louvre records that their nudity was lightly veiled from before 1685 until the nineteenth century, and that removing the veils led to a harsh cleaning and a controversy in the 1860s.
7.A lute, a marble head and a palette on the ground
Along the bottom edge lie a lute, a long-necked lute, a dark oval plaque carrying a bearded face in relief, a white marble head on its side and a palette with brushes. The Louvre identifies the head as a bust of Plato and reads the objects as the fine arts the queen liked to practice.
8.A waterfall in the grotto
A thin waterfall drops down grey rock at the back of the grotto, ferns grow from the rock at the right, and a red curtain is drawn across the left. The setting is a cave rather than a palace, and the water is the brightest passage in the upper half of the picture.
1573
Marie de' Medici is born in Florence, the childhood the canvas turns into a lesson from the gods.
1615–22
The Luxembourg Palace is built in Paris for the queen, with two first-floor galleries meant for painted cycles.
1622
The queen commissions the cycle from Peter Paul Rubens after her reconciliation with Louis XIII.
1625
The twenty-four canvases are finished and installed in the west gallery of the palace.
before 1685
The nudity of the three Graces is lightly veiled, a change André Félibien records. The veils stay until the nineteenth century.
1790
The canvases are moved to the Louvre. They return to the Luxembourg for exhibition from 1802 to 1815, then come back for good in 1816.
1860s
A harsh cleaning that removes the veils from the Graces causes a public controversy.
1993
The complete cycle is installed in the Galerie Médicis, Room 801 of the Richelieu wing.
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France
Room 801, Galerie Médicis, Richelieu wing, Level 2. The Louvre's list of open galleries for September 2026 marks the Galerie Médicis as closed. Check the museum's current list before visiting.
Plan your visitAt the Musée du Louvre in Paris, inventory number INV 1771, in Room 801 of the Richelieu wing, the Galerie Médicis, where the museum catalogues it as L'Instruction de la reine. The Louvre's list of open galleries for September 2026 marks that room as closed, so check the museum's current list before travelling to see it.
Three gods, according to the Louvre. Minerva, in a plumed helmet, guides the child's hand over a book. Orpheus, crowned with laurel, plays a bass viol beside them. Mercury, god of eloquence, dives down from the top of the picture in a winged helmet. The Louvre reads Minerva and Orpheus as standing in for the princess's parents.
The three Graces. They stand at the right with their arms around each other, and the nearest holds a garland of flowers over the child's head. The Louvre reads them as the exchange between the fine arts and nature, and between body and mind, with the bust of Plato on the ground standing for the mind.
A marble head lying on its side, a palette with brushes, a lute and a second stringed instrument, and a dark oval plaque with a bearded face in relief. The Louvre identifies the head as a bust of Plato and reads the instruments and palette as the fine arts the queen liked to practice.
Yes. The Louvre records that the nudity of the Graces was lightly veiled from before 1685 until the nineteenth century. Removing the veils led to a rather brutal cleaning of the canvas, which was the subject of a controversy in the 1860s.
394 by 295 centimeters, roughly thirteen feet by nine feet eight inches, the standard size of the narrative canvases in the Marie de' Medici cycle.
Displayed at · 1816
The Louvre's collection record, which titles the canvas L'Instruction de la reine, places it in Room 801, the Galerie Médicis, in the Richelieu wing, where the whole Marie de' Medici cycle has hung together since 1993. The cycle reached the Louvre from the Luxembourg Palace in 1790 and has been shown there continuously since 1816.
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