Barbarossa kisses the Pope's foot

Painted on canvas in 1582 for the Doge's Palace in Venice, this large-scale history painting depicts the submission of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to Pope Alexander III in Venice in 1177 — a foundational episode in Venetian political mythology celebrating the city's role as mediator between papal and imperial power. The Doge's Palace pictorial program, which included contributions from Tintoretto, Veronese, and other leading Venetian painters, asserted Venice's historical significance and republican virtue through major history paintings. Zuccari received this commission as a leading central Italian painter invited to contribute to the Venetian ensemble. The subject's emphasis on imperial humility before papal authority carried clear Counter-Reformation political resonance in the 1580s.

Large canvas appropriate to the monumental public history painting function of the Doge's Palace commission. Zuccari organizes the ceremonial submission through a hierarchical composition with the kneeling Barbarossa at its moral and spatial base and the enthroned pope at its apex. Venetian architectural setting — St. Mark's Square implied — grounds the historical event in its specific location.