Cultural depictions of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II's statue in Palazzo Reale di Napoli.

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, also called Stupor mundi (Wonder of the world), was a notable European ruler who left a controversial political and cultural legacy. Considered by some to be "the most brilliant of medieval German monarchs , and probably of all medieval rulers" and admired for his multifaceted activites in the fields of government building, legislative work, cultural patronage and science, he has also been criticized for his cruelty, his neglect of Germany in favour of his Sicilian businesses. In Italy, the emperor has gained a split image, with one element being favoured over the other depending on the era and the region: tyrant, heretic, enlightened despot, Puer Apulia (boy from Apulia), Father of the Fatherland. Modern scholars generally praise the emperor's many talents, but the degree Frederick's actions and attitude can be considered to be a break from contemporary norms, as well as his contribution to contemporary advancement of knowledge (in the context of Sicilian and Hohenstaufen legacies as well as cultural developments by other courts) is often subject to debates.

Historiography

Frederick the Second enters Constance as Emperor, from Die Gartenlaube (1866)

Ernst Kantorowicz's biography, Frederick the Second, original published in 1927, is a very influential work in the historiography of the emperor. Kantorowicz praises Frederick as a genius, who created the "first western bureaucracy", an "intellectual order within the state" that acted like "an effective weapon in his fight with the Church—bound together from its birth by sacred ties in the priestly-Christian spirit of the age, and uplifted to the triumphant cult of the Deity Justitia." Kantorowicz's writings about Frederick were abused during the Nazi period for propaganda purpose. Joseph Mali and Yôsef Malî argue that Frederick II were not important for the Nazis the way Frederick Barbarossa or Karl the Great, as exemplars of pure Aryanness, were though. They also note that while Kantorowicz endorsed Burckhardt's thinking, that Frederick was the protypical modern ruler, whose Gewaltstaat later became the model of tyrannies for all Renaissance princes, Kantorowicz primarily saw Frederick as the last and greatest Christian emperor, who embraced "Medieval World Unity".

Thomas Curtis Van Cleve's 1972 The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Immutator Mundi also acknowledges the emperor's genius, as a ruler, lawgiver and also as a scientist.. Karl Leyser opines that Kantorowicz and Cleve as well as other historians are too hagiographic. Leyser writes that Frederick was an individual with many gifts, but was "neither likeable or reassuring", with a personality damaged greatly during his terrible childhood. Leyser also points out that Cleve exaggerates the role of Frederick's court in the transmission of Aristotelean and Arabic knowledge to Western court: Frederick's court was important but did not play the leading role, let alone monopolizing this process.

In 1992, David Abulafia wrote a revisionist works which argues that Frederick was not a rationalist or an early free-thinker, but a medieval ruler concerned with dynastic goals and also a "victim of his dual inheritance", who was forced to act in his own defense in front of popes who were determined to destroy his power. Regarding his cultural activities, Abulafia opines that "Frederick's cultural patronage was a pale shadow of that of his Norman ancestors" and that his reign marked "the end, not the revival, of convivencia of his southern kingdom."

Dorothea Weltecke notes that despite Abulafia's effort to destroy what he saw as German mystification of a "medieval emperor", most historians today still see Frederick as a man who transcended his time and shared our values of secularism, tolerance and rationalism. Weltecke opines that Frederick's diverse style of ruling in his different lands and his ability to adapt make it difficult to present in a coherent manner his politics, let alone his personality, that in his time, already provoked either "profound adoration or vehement rejection". Regarding his role in Arabic-Christian transfer of knowledge though, Weltecke writes that the Medieval Christian culture was not a monolithic entity unanimously hostile to Muslims, thus it was not necessary for Frederick to possess a hybrid personality to be the competent diplomat and promoter of science he was. Other forces in Latin states sought Muslim cooperation against Frederick, while other religious and secular figures like Alfonso IX of Leon also played a role in the emergence of universities and the transfer of knowledge from the Islamic world.

Castello Svevo di Trani, one of the most remarkable fortifications built by Frederick II

Interest in Frederick (usually called Federico II di Svevia) from Italian scholars is also very strong, especially in Apulia, where his image has become a foundation for unity. Kurstjens notes that, although vilified in Northern Italy and generally controversial, Frederick is still viewed unanimously as the founder of the Italian language.

According to Roberto Delle Donne, historically, Frederick had been villified by the Church as a tyrant. From the eighteenth century and especially with the Risorgimento in the nineteenth century, many scholars saw Frederick in a different light. Pietro Giannone's great work Istoria civile del Regno di Napoli (1723) praised Frederick for being an "advocate of jurisdictionalism, centralizer and enlightened despot", as opposed to the past Spanish viceroyalty and the contemporary Emperor Charles VI. Ludovico Antonio Muratori, in his Annali d'Italia (1743-1749), publicized the figure of Frederick as a ruler with “a big heart, great intellectual power and prudence, as well as a love of belles-lettres, which he was the first to bring into his Reich and spread there, in addition to his sense of justice, which was why he was able to develop many optimal regulations, finally his knowledge of different languages...". During the Risorgimento, the new Ghibelline reinterpretation of Frederick II as the "Father of the Fatherland" was expressed most fully in Luigi Settembrini's “Lezioni di Letteratura Italiana", (written in 1848, published between 1866 and 1872): "Frederick II alone was able to create the unity of Italy, because he had the power, the right, the fortitude, because he was born and raised Italian, because he wanted his empire here." Kurstjens also notes that, although his reputation in the North was worse than in the South, both due to his own actions in subjugating their cities and because Northern Italians' ongoing conflicts with later emperors, with the rise of the Risorgimento, Frederick became a topical matter and came to be seen by many as the precursor to Italian unity.

The 2008 book Lo strano caso di Federico II di Svevia. Un mito medievale nella cultura di massa by the Italian journalist Marco Brando addresses the matter of contemporary mythologization surrounding Frederick II. Brando was inspired by his mentor, the historian Raffaele Licinio. The book caused considerable backlash, especially from scholars in Apolia.

An introduction to the 2014 work Federico II le nozze di Oriente e Occidente. L'età federiciana in terra di Brindisi by historian Antonio Mario Caputo reads:

A man of controversial actions, he was a multifaceted personality, so complex as to raise passionate criticism or exaltation among opposing factions. "Miserly and angry", according to his Guelph detractors; "Wise, enlightened and dispenser of justice", for the Ghibellines. Among the first group, the Franciscan Salimbene de Adam stands out from Parma. He had no doubts about the morality of the emperor, calling him without moderate terms, "nonbeliever, cunning, shrewd, lustful, wicked", and again: "a virulent and accursed man, schismatic, heretic and epicurean". On the other hand, on the Ghibelline side, there was the exhilarating paean of the English monk Matthew Paris: "Among the princes of the earth, Federico is the greatest, stupor mundi and the miraculous transformer". The author of "De rebus gestis Friderici imperatori" gives excessive praises, that "he was a man of great heart and yet was able to temper his own magnanimity with the great wisdom within". The judgment of Giovanni Villani seems balanced in his Chronicle: "he was a man of great valor, wise in scripture and natural wisdom, he knew Latin and the vernacular, German and French, Greek and Saracen. And he was dissolute in lust in more ways, and he held many concubines and mamluks in the guise of Saracens; he wanted to abound in all bodily delights, and lived an almost epicurean life. And this was the main reason why he was an enemy of the clerics and of the Church ". His character, certainly, was with multiple contradictions: crusader in the Holy Land and simultaneously a friend of the Sultan of Egypt, anointed by the Lord and sympathizer of doctrines with the odor of heresy, absolute king in Sicily and feudal princeps in Germany. Thanks to his contribution, the "Sicilian school" was able to compete with the ones in Provence and Catalan. He favored the Islamic culture but sent for the concentration camps in Lucera more than fifteen thousand Saracens. Ultimately, a wonderful chameleon: he inherited from the Swabians ideals of imperial supremacy, from the Normans methods of centralized government, from Arabs love for philosophy and mathematics. Federico was also man of peace. He gave proof of that in 1228, when he landed in the Holy Land to take away the Holy Sepulcher from the infidels by obtaining Jerusalem through the diplomacy. His naturalistic interests and his passion for women must also be considered. The 'Puer Apuliae' was a promoter of young people; at his court he introduced many, entrusting them to the care of experts, so that they could refine their aptitudes and vocations. A complete and modern man Federico [...], who, if he had lived in our days, as well as arousing controversy and dissension, would have received mostly favors and would have been praised beyond measure[...].

While modern Germans tend to consider Frederick an Italian, like Caputo, German histrians Kurstjens and Houben also agree that Frederick was a product of both worlds, a fact he was conscious about. Houben opines that, "Making the Kingdom of Sicily the basis of imperial policy was a pragmatic decision, in consideration of the resources available there, and a promising decision given the practical impossibility of being equally present across his empire. north and south of the Alps". Houben also stresses the transcultural dimension of Frederick, who as an intellectual, was also receptive to Islamic and Jewish influences.

In 2005, after an initiative by the Treccani, an encyclopaedia dedicated solely to Frederick II, named Enciclopedia fridericiana, was composed by a committee headed by Ortensio Zecchino.

• Cleve, Thomas Curtis Van (1972). The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Immutator Mundi. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Abulafia, David (1992). Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-508040-7. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
• Tragni, Bianca (1994). Il mitico Federico II di Svevia (in Italian). Adda. ISBN 978-88-8082-197-7. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
• Fornari, Carlo (2000). Federico II: condottiero e diplomatico (in Italian). M. Adda. ISBN 978-88-8082-373-5. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
• Houben, Hubert (2008). Kaiser Friedrich II.: 1194-1250 : Herrscher, Mensch und Mythos (in German). W. Kohlhammer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-17-018683-5. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
• Vigni, Benito Li (2011). Federico II: il principe sultano (in Italian). Armando Editore. ISBN 978-88-6081-978-9. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
• Rader, Olaf B. (10 October 2012). Kaiser Friedrich II (in German). C.H.Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-64051-3. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
• Kantorowicz, Ernst (13 June 2019). Frederick the Second: Wonder of the World 1194-1250. Head of Zeus. ISBN 978-1-78954-084-0. Retrieved 11 May 2022.

• Manselli, Raoul. "Federico II di Svevia imperatore in "Enciclopedia Dantesca"". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 11 May 2022.
• Federico II: enciclopedia fridericiana (in Italian). Instituto Della Enciclopedia Italiana. 2006. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
• "FEDERICO II imperatore in "Enciclopedia Italiana"". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 11 May 2022.
• Wolf, Gunther. "Frederick II Biography, Accomplishments, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 11 May 2022.

Legends

Depiction of Frederick II as the seventh and biggest head of the apocalyptic dragon. Frederick is depicted with the rulers Herod, Nero or Saladin as the heads of a monster. The dragon's tail encircles a group of Franciscans. Giovanni Villani, Chronica, 14th century, Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Codex Vat. Lat. 3822, fol. 5r.

According to Kantorowicz, "Frederick was the last emperor to be deified or to find a place among the stars of heaven." In his life, writers already celebrated as the Sun King or the Sun God, associated with the old cult of Sol Invictus. Incidently, the emperor had been born within a day of the birth of Christ and the Sun. After his death, he was prophesied to return to establish the kingdom of heaven. Many years later, impostors still appeared and many in Florence still wondered whether the emperor was still alive or nor, because Frederick had been promised a life that would last three hundred and sixteen seven years. Meanwhile, his detractors saw in him the Antichrist.

Huub Kurstjens opines that Frederick was a mythomoteur, a myth-engine or the driving force behind myths, regarding which some historians blame Frederick himself as the creator. Boccaccio exaggerated Constance's age when she gave birth to Frederick, calling her a "wrinkled old woman", and attached ruinous prophecy to Frederick's birth, that he would bring about the downfall of the Kingdom of Sicily.

There are legends about him in Italy. Dante mentions the legend about one of his favorite methods of punishment, which was putting the accused inside leaden mantles and then throwing them into a fire.

In Germany, legends tend to confuse Frederick with his grandfather, Frederick Barbarossa. The famous Kyffhäuser (See also: legends about Frederick Barbarossa was orginally about Frederick II, but later became primary associated with Barbarossa, as the figure of the grandson was gradually superceded by that of the grandfather. In Italy, there is the corresponding legend of Frederick II sleeping under Mount Etna.

Kantorowicz recounts a German legend: "In 1497 a carp was caught in a pond at Heilbronn, in whose gills, under the skin, a copper ring was fastened, with a Greek inscription which stated that Frederick II, with his own hand, had released this fish." The Humanists of the time decided that Frederick II, whose hands had the life-giving quality, wanted to promote the study of Greek in Germany.

Depictions in arts

Arts under Frederick II

Architecture

Castel del Monte

Frederick, as patron and architect, built many castles in Italy, in which he combined German, Italian, Arabic and classical Roman elements.

• His most famous castle is the Castel del Monte, which according to some, represents the imperial crown or the heavenly Jerusalem. The otagonal shape, the "perfect image of eternity", represents the earthly might of the Christian Caesar.

Ubaldo Occhinegro considers the choice of "regular, symmetrical floor plans" as the result of organizational and technical considerations though: "Many researchers have misunderstood this choice as a simple rational or artistic will, connected with the eclectic figure of the Emperor, with his centralizing policy and pragmatic, forgetting, however, the contingent construction choices responding fully to the needs of Frederick. He had to prepare a powerful organizational machine that goes from the extraction of the stones, the pre-fabrication of the elements directly in the stone quarry, to the distribution and installation of them among the construction sites across the country [...]It is therefore logical that the provision and use of pre-fabricated elements, needed a project set on the basis of predetermined size and length ratios: a kind of standardization of that we'll meet only many years later in Catalan Gothic. It's for this reason that, comparing homogeneous architectural elements (windows, doors, arches and lintels) in different castles far from each other, many dimensions appear to be coincident."

• The Gate of Capua reused the forms of classical architecture and was designed to represent the emperor's authority. The Gate was destroyed in 1557 by the Spanish but images survive, icluding one in a 1507 manuscript now in Vienna (Man.3528). Sculptures from the Gate are now preserved by the Museo Campano in Capua. Frederick has himself depicted as Christ or Antichrist seated in Judgement.

Poetry

Frederick, a poet himself, promoted poetry in his court, which helped to nurture what would later become the Italian language. He and his poets adopted and Italianized many forms and concepts of Occitan love poetry. The works of his poets (who were in many cases officials) like Georgios of Gallipoli in Calabria or Pietro della Vigna created a supernatural and classical atmosphere that would influence later legends. The figure of the Emperor-Messiah tended to fuse with Zeus or the Sicilian God of Justice.

Later depictions

Visual arts

The Court of Emperor Frederick II in Palermo by Arthur von Ramberg

• Around 1572–1573, Giorgio Vasari painted for the Sala Regia Vaticana the scene of Gregory IX excommunicating Frederick.
• Frederick's portrait in the Kaisersaal in Frankfurt am Main is part of a series depicting emperors who reigned from 768 to 1806 (created from 1839 to 1853). This portrait is painted by Philipp Veit (1793 – 1877) in 1843.
• Federico II riceve un libro da Michele Scoto is a 1860 work by Giacomo Conti, now preserved in the Palazzo dei Normanni, showing Frederick II receiving a book from Michael Scot.
• In 1864, Ferdinand Wagner created the fresco painting Einzug Kaiser Friedrich II in commemoration of his 1212 entry into Konstanz.
• The Court of Emperor Frederick II in Palermo was painted in 1865 by Arthur von Ramberg. Alina Payne opines that Frederick and his entourage are shown as possessing superiority and also arrogance and suspicion to the Muslim delegation.
• In 1880, Hermann Wislicenus produced the Hofhaltung Friedrichs II. in Palermo for the Kaisersaal in the Kaiserpfalz Goslar.
• The Nascita di Federico II a Jesi, depicting Frederick's birth, by Italian painter Luigi Detto Sordo, was executed during the later half of the nineteenth century.
• Kaiser Friedrich II. entläßt nach Preußen ziehende Deutsch-Ordensritter, 1236, depicting Frederick dismissing the Teutonic Order, who were moving into Prussia, was painted by Peter Janssen between 1893 and 1895.
• In 2009, a monumental bronze statue of the emperor holding a falcon, created by the sculptor Maurizio Carnevali, was donated to the city of Lamezia Terme by the Lions Club di Lamezia Terme.

Films

• Stupor mundi is 1998 film directed by Pasquale Squitieri and based on Aurelio Pes's poem Ager sanguinis. The film explores Frederick, portrayed by Lorenzo Crespi, as a mythical figure with both revolutionary and despotic aspects. It was commissioned by Nicola Cristaldi, then president of the Federico II Foundation, for the 900th Anniversary of the Sicilian Assembly.
• He is portrayed by Robert McNeir in the 1998 Io non ho la testa directed by Michele Lanubile. The movie is about the reign of Frederick II, when the emperor and scholars tried to promote new ways of learning.
• Der Gigant auf dem Thron, Friedrich II., the fifth part of the 1995 documentary series Streifzüge durch das Mittelalter by BBC and SDR, is about Frederick.
• Friedrich II. und der Kreuzzug (2010), directed by Christian Feyerabend and Daniel Sich, narrated by Prof. Dr. Stefan Weinfurter, the second episode of the second season of the documentary series "Die Deutschen" by ZDF, is about Frederick, who is portrayed by Michael Pink.

Theater

• In 1828, Karl Immermann produced the play Kaiser Friedrich II., a tragedy that depicts the triumph of Catholicism over liberal thinking.
• In 1837, Ernst Raupach wrote a cycle of sixteen plays titled "Die Hohenstaufen". The fifth part is about Frederick II.
• Richard Wagner found Friedrich Raumer's depiction of the emperor's character fascinating, but struggled to find artistic channels for him, and decided that Frederick's son Manfred offered a more tractable subject. Between 1841 and 1842, he wrote the text of a five-act opera named the Sarazenin (never set to music), describing the story of Manfred and Fatima, who was the daughter of Frederick and a Saracen princess.
• In 1951, Bernt von Heiseler produced Kaiser Friedrich II., the centrepiece in his Hohenstaufentrilogie.

Prose

• Boccaccio's Decameron evokes Frederick in several tales. He is mentioned in V.5, then appears in V.6 as a character. The falconer V.9 bears the name Federigo.
• The Star of the Wind by Somerset Struben De Chair is a 1974 fictional work based on the life of Frederick.
• He is the main character in the Zeit lässt steigen dich und stürzen: Kaiser Friedrich II. und die letzten Staufer : historischer Roman, a 1999 novel by Eberhard Cyran.
• Il falco di Svevia, translated to English as The Falcon of Palermo, is a 2005 novel by Maria R. Bordihn
• Er lebt und lebt nicht: Traumbuch über Kaiser Friedrich II. is a 2012 novel by Angela Gantke about the woman Agnes, who time-traveled to meet Frederick as equals.
• La dama eloquente. Vita e destino di Federico II. Regnum is a 2021 fictional work about the love triangle between Frederick and the poets Selvaggia and Pier della Vigna

Poetry

• Rilke wrote the poem Falconry about Frederick.

            when it was strange, new, and full of turbulence.
            And whatever beckoned then—
            plans which had spmng up in him,
            or tender recollections'
            deep, deep inner chiming—
            he had spurned at once, for that frightened fledgling
            falcon's sake, whose blood and worries
            he taxed himself relentlessly to grasp.
            In exchange he too seemed borne aloft,
            when the bird, to whom the lords give praise,
            tossed radiantly from his hand, above
            in that all-embracing springtime morning
            dropped like an angel on the heron.

Dobyns remarks that the poem also reflects Rilke, who put aside his ambitions and family to focus on poetry, that drops upon the reader like the falcon on the heron.

Commemoration

Statue of Frederick at Museo Federico II Stupor Mundi, Jesi

Museo Federico II Stupor Mundi is a Museum in Jesi, that is dedicated to the emperor. There is also the Emperor Frederick II Museum in Lagopesole Castle, Province of Potenza.

In April 2022, the Italian Cultural Institute in New York organized the exhibition "Constancia. Women and Power in the Mediterranean Empire of Frederick II" (the women referred here were Constance of Hauteville, (1154-1198), mother of Frederick II; Empress Constance of Aragon (1184 ca.-1222), his first wife; Empress Constance (1231 – circa 1307/13), daughter of Frederick II and Bianca Lancia, wife of Emperor of the East John III Ducas Vatatze; Queen Constance (1249-1300), daughter of Manfred.

See also

• Castel del Monte, Apulia
• Castello Normanno-Svevo (Bari)
• De arte venandi cum avibus

• Cultural depictions of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
• Cultural depictions of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor
• Cultural depictions of Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor
• Cultural depictions of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
• Cultural depictions of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Further reading

Frederick II and architecture

• Knaak, Alexander (2001). Prolegomena zu einem Corpuswerk der Architektur Friedrich II. von Hohenstaufen im Königreich Sizilien (1220-1250) (in German). Jonas. ISBN 978-3-89445-278-0. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
• Maurici, Ferdinando; Associazione Culturale Augustea. Palermo (2003). Friedrich II.: Architektur und Kunst Siziliens zur Zeit der Hohenstaufen (in German). Italienisch. Generalkonsulat, Kulturabteilung.
• Geymüller, Heinrich von (1908). Friedrich II von Hohenstauffen and die anfänge der architektur der renaissance in Italien (in German). Bruckmann. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
• Gotze, Heinz; Götze, Heinz (1998). Castel Del Monte: Geometric Marvel of the Middle Ages. Prestel. ISBN 978-3-7913-1930-8. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
• Castel Del Monte. Andria and the Federician Route. SAGEP. 2015. ISBN 978-88-6373-383-9. Retrieved 25 May 2022.

Lterature and music

• Magaletta, Giuseppe (1989). Musica e poesia alla corte di Federico II di Svevia (in Italian). Bastogi. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
• Annunziata, Francesco Saverio (2020). Federico II e i trovatori (in Italian). Viella. ISBN 978-88-3313-290-7. Retrieved 25 May 2022.

Science

• Emperor Frederick II (Holy Roman); Wood, Casey Albert; Fyfe, Florence Marjorie (June 1943). De Arte Venardi Cum Avibus: Being the De Arte Venandi Cum Avibus of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-0374-1. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
• McVaugh, Michael Rogers; Pasche, Véronique (1994). Le Scienze Alla Corte Di Federico II (in French). Brepols. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
• Federico II e le scienze (in Italian). Sellerio. 1994. Retrieved 25 May 2022.

Miscellaneous

• Cattaneo, Giulio (2002). Federico II di Svevia: lo specchio del mondo : la figura complessa e originale, illuminata e geniale dell'ultimo imperatore "de li romani" che trovò nel Regno di Sicilia la sua vera patria (in Italian). Newton & Compton. ISBN 978-88-8289-711-6. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
• Horst, Eberhard (1994). Federico II di Svevia (in Italian). Rizzoli. ISBN 978-88-17-11621-3. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
• Centro italiano di studi sul basso Medioevo (Accademia tudertina) (1995). Federico II e le nuove culture: atti del XXXI Convegno storico internazionale, Todi, 9-12 ottobre 1994 (in Italian). Centro italiano di studi sull'alto Medioevo. ISBN 978-88-7988-397-9. Retrieved 25 May 2022.