Venantius Fortunatus reading his poems to Radegonda VI and the abbess in the monastery of Poitier

Venantius Fortunatus Reading His Poems to Radegonda VI (1862) is among Alma-Tadema's earliest known works, depicting the sixth-century Latin poet Venantius Fortunatus reading his verses to Queen Radegonda of the Franks and an abbess in the monastery at Poitiers—one of the most remarkable cultural relationships in the early medieval world. Radegonda (c.520–587), a Thuringian princess who became a Frankish queen before founding a monastery and becoming a nun, hosted Fortunatus as her resident poet, and their relationship—intellectual, spiritual, and deeply affectionate—produced some of the most significant Latin poetry of late antiquity. Dordrechts Museum holds this canvas. The early medieval Merovingian setting places the work in the Belgian historical genre tradition Alma-Tadema was trained in, just before his decisive shift toward classical antiquity. It demonstrates his early scholarly approach to historical reconstruction.

Oil on canvas from Alma-Tadema's very early career, showing the Merovingian historical genre style of his Belgian training. The architectural setting of a sixth-century monastic interior requires different material specificity than his later Roman works—darker spaces, heavier textiles, early medieval manuscript and religious objects.