03 — ARTWORK
Frederick III
- MEDIUM
- Tempera and gold on paper, mounted on wood, 23 x 16 cm
- TYPE
- Portrait
PALETTE
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- FILE
- 602 × 850 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The inscription on two strips - one along the top and the other on the right of the panelTerm in painting for a support of wood, metal, or other rigid substance, as distinct from canvas. Until the adoption of canvas in the 15th century nearly all the movable paintings of Europe were executed on wood, and even up to the beginning of the 17th century it is probable that as much painting was done on the one support as on the other. Painters who worked on a small scale often used copper panels (Elsheimer is a leading example), and in the colonial art of South America copper and tin and even lead and zinc were used. On a larger scale, slate has occasionally been used as a support, notably by Rubens for his altarpiece for Sta Maria in Vallicella (the Chiesa Nuova) in Rome; the picture he originally painted was said to reflect the light unpleasantly and slate was used for the replacement to produce a more matt finish. For wood panels the Italian masters of the Renaissance preferred white poplar, while oak was the most common wood used in northern Europe. Many other types were used, however; analysis of the contents of art galleries has yielded a long list, including beech, cedar, chestnut, fir, larch, linden, mahogany, olive, and walnut. In the 20th century cedar, teak, and dark walnut are favourites, and modern painters have also used plywood, fibre-board, and other synthetic materials as supports. - reads: FEDERICVS TERTIVS ROMANOR[VM] / REX DIVVS AC SEEMPER AVGVSTVS ("The divine and always august king of the Romans, Frederick III").
The function of this miniatureTerm originally applied to the art of manuscript illumination but later used of paintings, usually portraits, executed on a very small scale. The earliest miniaturists (16th century) continued to use the materials of the illuminators, painting in gouache on vellum or card. was established to be the preparation for Frederick's journey to Italy in early 1452, culminating on March 19 with his coronation by Pope Nicholas V at St Peter's.
Formerly, the predominant tendency was to ascribe the painting to a Sienese artist (Vecchietta or Domenico di Bartolo), or to attributeA symbolic object which is conventionally used to identify a particular person, usually a saint. In the case of martyrs, it is usually the nature of their martyrdom. it to a Paduan artist from the circle of Squarcione. In the 1960s the name of Fra Carnevale came forward as a possible candidate for authorship. Most recently the attribution to a Perugian painter, Benedetto Bonfigli, was proposed.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-rbd2fba907503f6,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Frederick III by BONFIGLI, Benedetto},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/bonfigli-benedetto-r3fd3f522f64a21/frederick-iii-rbd2fba907503f6},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
OTHER WORKS BY BENEDETTO BONFIGLI
The archive catalogues no further works by this artist.
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