The Sisters d’Estrées

Two sitters, Gabrielle and her sister, look out at us from their apartments. Nude, they are part of an established tradition of portraits of women at their toilette, typically painted as part of marriage negotiations and later with ambivalent themes of the erotic and the private.

This work, however, is more direct in its approach. Mistress to Henri IV, Gabrielle holds his ring in her left hand. This is the ring that Henri IV was given as part of his coronation ceremony, and signifies a symbolic marriage to the land. In the Renaissance the term “the crown jewels” conjured up all the images it does today, and so this ring, as well as other pieces that were part of the symbolic dowry, were worn by the women Henri IV was involved with. They became a visual representation of his sexual potency.

Henri IV’s masculinity is assured, but what about Gabrielle? In touching her right breast, Gabrielle’s sister focuses our attention with a well-known trope. With what Rebecca Zorach calls “the breast press,” we link Gabrielle to another symbolic lineage, that of fertile France. Earlier works of the French Renaissance had used the breast (or two, or four, or six) to describe France’s superabundant land and therefore its ability to feed all. Here, Gabrielle is France’s own. She is pregnant with the King’s child.

(Based on the ideas in Rebecca Zorach, Blood, Milk, Ink and Gold)