Charlemagne

This is a fresco painting from the town hall in Aachen. It shows Charlemagne in the battle of Cordova in 778. It’s by the German Romantic history painter Alfred Rethel (1816-1859) and dated from 1849/50.

It should be said that Charlemagne not even came near to Cordova or gained any battle in Spain. But these facts didn’t matter. The artist and his employers wanted to show the great defender of Christian Western civilization.

The whole image is a pure construction from the dramatic triangular composition to the imperial crown with which Charlemagne went to battle.