Barbarossa's head

Emperor Frederick Barbarossa lived in the Middle Ages, between about 1122 and 1190, but is depicted in Spanish Renaissance fashion. He has combed hair, a short beard and a wide white ruffle under his neck, a collar of starched, folded fabric. Maria Mrozińska, a Polish researcher into the work of members of the Venetian 18th-century Tiepolo family, established that the study of Barbarossa's head, attributed to Giandomenico, is actually the work of his father, Giambattista. It was related to his work on the fresco The Marriage of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa to Beatrice of Burgundy painted in 1751 in the Imperial Hall (Kaisersaal) in the Bishop's residence in Würzburg. Although there is a very high similarity between the heads in the drawing and the fresco, various details show that it was not a copy from the fresco but a drawing that preceded the painting. The details include differences in the modelling of the face with chiaroscuro visible on the side and wing of the nose, the cursory elaboration on the shape of the nose in the drawing, or just a few curls on the head. The drawing was created using black and white crayons on blue Venetian paper. The sketched Frederick I Barbarossa of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was the son of Frederick II the One-Eyed, Duke of Swabia and Judith, daughter of Henry IX the Black from the House of Welf, Duke of Bavaria. In 1155, he was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He strove to strengthen the position of the emperor and achieve permanent independence from the pope. In 1189, he organised the Third Crusade against the Middle Eastern ruler Saladin, during which he drowned in the Saleph river.

Ewa Gwiazdowska