Important Portrait of Infant Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, attributed to Benjamin Block (1631–1690), 17th century ...

Important Portrait of Infant Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, attributed to Benjamin Block (1631–1690), 17th century German school
Benjamin Block, or Blok (1631–1690), 17th-century German-Hungarian Baroque painter who married flower painter Anna Katharina Block. He is known for the portrait paintings of him. Joseph I was proclaimed King of the Romans (Latin: Rex Romanorum; German: König der Römer) was the title used by the German king upon his election by the princes in the reign of Henry II (1002–1024, emperor from 1014) said title was predominantly equivalent to being that of Holy Roman Emperor, which in turn depended for a long time on the coronation of the Pope. The title originally referred to any elected German king who had not yet been given the imperial title and the title of emperor at the hands of the Pope. It later came to be used solely for the designated heir to the imperial throne between his election (during a sitting emperor's lifetime) and his succession upon the emperor's death. The title became functionally obsolete with the abolition of the requirement that emperors be crowned by the Pope in 1508, but continued to be used as part of the emperor's formal titles until the end of the Empire in 1806. Framed dimensions: 159 x 112, dimensions canvas: 146 x 100 cm