Scarlett Butler

Abstract

The former Queen of France and Navarre, Marguerite de Valois (1553–1615), is presented as ‘fat’ in Peter Paul Rubens’s The Coronation at Saint-Denis, one of the monumental history paintings of the Medici Cycle, a series reimagining Maria de’ Medici’s life and career completed in 1625. This article examines how the incorporation of fatness as a notable element of Marguerite’s characterisation illuminates the interaction between body size and gender at the French court in the early seventeenth century. Preparatory oil sketches for The Coronation demonstrate that Marguerite’s body size expanded as her status is lowered within the image, while it elevates Maria’s status and emphasises her authority as mother of the King. By establishing Marguerite as a direct foil to the Queen Mother, The Coronation may allude to political satires that accused Marguerite of an unnatural sexuality and problematic infertility. Despite the derogatory discourses which may be alluded to in the painting, Marguerite’s appearance is not entirely negative and continues to fit within Rubens’s idealised vision of the fashionably ‘plump’ female body. Due to their cooler, moister humoural makeup, women were often considered to be fatter than men in early modern Europe. However, this tendency is exaggerated in Rubens’s art. Round shapes and dappled flesh tones are used to vividly visualise women’s constitutional fatness as well as demonstrate Rubens’s mastery of his medium. As such, fat enhanced the dynamic and erotic potential of women’s bodies in Rubens’s art. Ultimately, this article concludes that The Coronation does not so much illustrate criticisms of Marguerite but rather is tailored for a setting in which fat’s transgression and its appeal could coexist.

Keywords: body size, fatness, fat studies, anti-fatness, Rubens, France, French court, gender, Marguerite de Valois, Maria de’ Medici, seventeenth century, early modern, baroque

Full text: Picturing Bodies_5_Butler

DOI: 10.5456/issn.2050-3679/2025w05

Biographical note 
Scarlett Butler is a PhD candidate in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. Her thesis explores the visual and medical ‘treatment’ of fatness in early modern France (c.1530–1630) with particular focus on print culture, courtly display and the upheavals in gender roles and class relations during and after the Wars of Religion.