The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

Die Miniatur Über den Künstler

The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

DE
The Miniature About the Artist

Frederick IV, King of Denmark and Norway

Josias Barbette

Frederick IV of Denmark and Norway (1671–1730) had his portrait painted wearing a decorative breastplate and the blue sash of the Order of the Elephant.1 His posture is full of tension: his head is turned in the opposite direction to his upper body, and he is gazing out of the picture into the distance. 

With his hand resting on a commander’s baton, he gives an impression of dignity and simultaneously of pensive determination, or perhaps a review from a distance. Here again, Josias Barbette, who was appointed Danish court painter under Frederick’s father, King Christian V demonstrates his extraordinary talent for enamel miniatures. The face and the individual curls of the impressive allongé wig are rendered extremely finely with great differentiation, and the reflecting highlights on the armour give it a very bright appearance. 

Frederick acceded to the throne in 1699. One of his major policy objectives was to reconquer parts of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein for the Danish crown, and after several initially abortive military campaigns he finally succeeded in doing so in the second Great Nordic War, in 1720.

J. S. O.

1 His characteristic facial features – the very high forehead, pointed chin and long, slender nose – can be seen very clearly in a pastel by Rosalba Carriera, which she executed when the king visited Venice (Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark). It shows a very similar – but mirror-image – posture and the same facial expression on the part of the sitter.