Portrait of Frederick I, King of Prussia (1657-1713)

Portrait of Friedrich I, King of Prussia. The first Prussian king is turned to the left as a bust and reproduced in the three-quarter profile. He wears a wig, armor and over it a coat made of ermine fur with brooch. It is flanked by two eagles equipped with crown, scepters and sword. In front of the bust is a large cartouche with a crown, which bears an inscription. The cartouche is adorned with laurel and palm wedges at the bottom and is flanked by a head of the medus on a shield or mirror on the left and a knightly helmet on the right. To the right behind the king, a Fama appears with a wind instrument in which he blows up. The angel pulls aside a curtain with his right hand, behind which an architecture is hinted at in the background. Frederick I came from the house of Hohenzollern and was known from 1688 as Friedrich III Margrave of Brandenburg and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire and sovereign Duke in Prussia. It was not until 1701 that he took the name of Friedrich I on the occasion of his self-crowning as king in Prussia. In 1684 he married the world princess Sophie Charlotte von Braunschweig-Hanover. The leaf was made by Johann Georg Wolfgang, who had been a Hofkupferstecher in Berlin since 1740. Another specimen of the paper is now in the British Museum in London. In addition, there is a brown-tinted doublet (BS-III 382) and a normal doublet (BS-III 385) in the Händel-Haus Foundation. Signature: Weideman Pict: Regis Effig. Pinx: Joh. Georg Wolffgang. S. R. fecit Berolin. 1718. Caption: Divus Fridericus Glor. Mem. Rex. Borussiae March. fire. S. R. Imp. Archicam. et Elector. Watermark: lower leaf margin available: signs and letters (zeichen Händel-Haus Halle Foundation)