Studienkopf des Kaisers Friedrich I. Barbarossa zum Fresko Schlacht bei Ikonium

Head Study of Emperor Frederick I. Barbarossa for the Fresco the Battle of Iconium, ca. 1828/29

ArtistCarl Friedrich Lessing, Wrocław 1808–1880 Karlsruhe

Oil on plaster

Dimensions without frame36,3 × 31,5 cm

Dimensions with frame53,5 × 49 × 8 cm

Status

on display, room 010.2

About the workEmperor Frederick I’s red beard earned him the nickname Barbarossa. This preparatory study by the Düsseldorf painter Carl Friedrich Lessing was for a painting depicting a battle fought in what is now Turkey in 1190. Barbarossa won the battle, but drowned just one month later. The German army was on a crusade – a religiously motivated war of conquest in Muslim lands. The crosses in the emperor’s helmet indicate this. Barbarossa was a popular motif in the nineteenth century; he represented a legendary German empire to which people longed to return.

AccessionGift 1879

Provenance[...]; bis 1879 Dr. Gerhardy, Düsseldorf; 1879 „Verein zur Errichtung einer Gemälde-Gallerie zu Düsseldorf“ erworben durch Schenkung von Gerhardy; 1913 übernommen in die Städtischen Kunstsammlungen zu Düsseldorf (heute Kunstpalast Düsseldorf)

Inventory numberM 4069

Contact

sammlung@kunstpalast.de

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