Here are 3 versions of a Victorian image of Maria de’ Medici, who was born in 1575 and died in 1642. In between, she had a remarkable life. Born into the famous Medicis of Florence, Italy, she was the daughter of Francesco I de’ Medici, Duke of Tuscany. Her maternal grandfather was none other than the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand I. Quite an impressive lineage.

In 1600, she married Henry IV of France; and, despite a failed marriage, the intrigues of the French court, and the verbal battles with Henry’s mistresses, when Henry died in 1610 she became regent for their son, Louis XIII. Louis came of age in 1617, and later married Anne of Austria. Their heir was Louis XIV, thus making Maria grandmother to the “Sun King”. [Louis XIII was also the king who reign saw the rise in power of Cardinal Richelieu, and his reign is the setting for Dumas' The Three Musketeers. The reign of Louis XIV is the setting for The Man in the Iron Mask.]  You can read more about Maria in the Wikipedia article about her.

The portrait here is fairly accurate as Victorian illustrations go and I just thought she would make a wonderful digital stamp, so you have your choice of two versions: .JPG or transparent .PNG. Enjoy! And be sure to click on the images to see and download them full-sized.

A Victorian portrait of Maria de' Medici (1575-1642), Queen of France, wife of Henry IV of France.

Above image, saved as a 300ppi transparent .png

Peace,

Bekka

Tags: bw, daily public domain, DPD, France, graphics, Henry IV of France, illustration, image, lady, line drawing, Louis XIII, Louis XIV, Maria de' Medici, Medici, modified image, PD, png, public domain, queen, Sun King, Three Musketeers, Victorian, Wikipedia, women

On the Project Gutenberg site, I found a German children’s book from 1912 called ‘Siegfried, the Hero’ [Siegfried, der Held], written by Rudolf Herzog and illustrated by Franz Stassen. I don’t really read much German, but some of the illustrations were fun, and with the help of Google Translate , I could mostly figure out the captions. Here are a few – they are public domain due to age. [As always, click on them to see and download them full-sized.]

Siegfried finds Brunhilda on the iron bed.

Siegfried sees Kriemhild for the first time.

Siegfried reveals the secret of the ring to Kriemhild.

The argument between the queens.

Now, I’m not much for Wagner, or the Ring Cycle, or anything [though the Ride of the Valkyries is a fun piece of music - and the ringtone on my phone], but I just thought these Art Nouveau renderings of ‘medieval’ people were too fun to pass up. Have fun with them!

Bekka

Tags: Art Nouveau, Brunhilda, bw, daily public domain, DPD, fantasy, free, graphics, hero, high fantasy, image, knight, Kriemhild, ladies, line drawing, medieval, norse, PD, Project Gutenberg, public domain, queen, saga, Siegfried