Frederik IV of Denmark

60 FREDERIK IV OF DENMARK (1671-1730)

The fine prince and his impossible love

THE SPACE

This elegant suite at the end of the Olympian Gallery is a hidden jewel on the noble floor. The bedroom is brightly decorated with a dynamic fresco ceiling in the theme of the four seasons. Flora, the goddess of flowers representing the season of spring, dresses in a rosy pink palette holding flowers in bloom. Ceres, the goddess of agriculture symbolizing summer, appears in a bright yellow gown wearing a headdress made of wheat stacks. Bacchus, the god of grape harvest, fertility and festivity, stands for the season of autumn, holding in his hands bunches of grapes. Lastly Saturn, the deity of time and periodic renewal, is personified as an old man representing the season of winter.

Palazzo Portinari Salviati has now dedicated this romantic suite to Frederik IV, King of Denmark, a famous guest who was housed twice in the Palazzo and received grandiose receptions from the city. Although his Tuscan romance never came true, the dreams of the young lovers linger on as do our perpetual quests for love.

THE STORY

On 5 May 1692, Frederik Augustus, then Crown Prince of Denmark and eldest son of King Christian V, arrived in Florence. He was lodged in Palazzo Salviati, which had been prepared for the Prince’s 15 day visit by his host, Princess Violante of Bavaria, wife of the Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici, heir to the throne. Crown Prince Frederik,

CEILING PAINTING OF THE FOUR SEASON

Spring is depicted as a young woman with a garland of flowers in her hair and hands; Summer is depicted as a woman with ears of corn in her hair and a mirror in her left hand; Autumn is depicted as a naked man crowned with vines and grapes and holding bunches of grapes in his hands; Winter is depicted as an old man, naked, with his head wrapped in a cloak and trembling from the cold.

traveling under the alias of the Count of Oldenburg, was “very aristocratic in bearing, but rather frail, pale and unattractive,” according to the chroniclers of the time.

The prince’s young unrequited love

Sumptuous receptions were held in his honor while he was in Florence. For his entertainment, a fight was organized between two lions, a bear and a hornless cow, and a race was run with seven Berber horses.

From Florence, Prince Frederik then went to Lucca, where he was housed in Palazzo Controni, today the Pfanner. In Lucca, the 21 year old Frederik met the beautiful Maria Maddalena Trenta who was just 20 years old. Maria was rich in virtues, and able to speak several languages. She accompanied the prince as an interpreter to show him the sights of the city. A mutual affection soon developed between the two youngsters but the differences between them made the romance impossible. While Federik was a Lutheran and a prince, Maria was a Catholic of inferior rank. On top of that, Maria Maddalena was promised in marriage to a marquis. With great sadness, Prince Frederik returned to Denmark and married Louise of Mecklenburg, and in 1699 ascended the throne as King Frederik IV.

Return of the Danish king

Seventeen years later, in the spring of 1709, King Frederik IV returned to Florence for a second time. He was again hosted in Palazzo Salviati and the plan to receive him was studied in great detail by the master of ceremonies of the grand ducal court. The Palazzo was illuminated by 1,080 lamps. Silverware, crockery and paintings were brought to enhance its extravagance. Rumors were flying all over town that the intention of King Frederik’s return was to see the girl he had once fallen in love with in his youth in Lucca. The Florentines flocked in droves to see the illustrious guest.

At the other end of the story, Maria Maddalena Trenta had broken off her engagement and lost hope of Frederik’s return. In 1693, she entered a Florentine monastery, Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, and became a cloistered nun, Sister Teresa Maria Maddalena di San Giuseppe. Since then, she rejected a miniature portrait studded with diamonds that Frederik had sent her as a gift, and in return had a small silver crucifix delivered to him, explaining to him that her bridegroom was now Jesus. Nevertheless the king was determined to see her. Although no one wanted to authorize this meeting that would break the rules of the cloister (a nun was forbidden to have any contact with anyone outside of the monastery except with her closest family members), Frederik eventually managed to meet her at least four times during his stay in Florence. It is not known what the king and the nun said to each other, but various witnesses recalled that at the end of the last meeting, Frederick IV of Denmark left the parlor with tears in his eyes, carrying in his heart the memory of his stays in Florence and of an impossible love.

A 19TH-CENTURY PORTRAIT OF FREDERIK IV

dressed in armor and a reddish cloak with a long, white-powdered all-long wig, tempera on ivory.

FLORENTINE FOOTBALL

During King Frederik IV’s second stay in Tuscany, on 21 April 1709, a football match was held in the king’s honor and much to his appreciation, according to a drawing depicting the game preserved in the State Archives of Lucca. Calcio Fiorentino (“Florentine football”), also known as “calcio in livrea,” is an early form of football that originated during the Middle Ages in Italy with its first games played in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence. The first Italian language dictionary of 1612, published by the Accademia della Crusca, carries the following definition for calcio, “…is also the name of a game, proper and ancient to the city of Florence, in the guise of an orderly battle, passed from the Greeks to the Latins, and from the Latins to us.” One famous occasion for calcio fiorentino took place on 17 February, 1530, when the Florentines held a match in Piazza Santa Croce in defiance of the imperial troops sent by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, as the city was under siege.