Painted frieze of the Bodleian Library

The painted frieze at the Bodleian Library, in Oxford, United Kingdom, is a series of 202 portrait heads in what is now the Upper Reading Room.

[5] Earlier precedents included portrait series of various groups such as, above all, saints, the Ancestors of Christ in a Tree of Jesse or other arrangement, or the Kings of France sculpted on the facade of Notre Dame.

[6] The literary tradition of de viris illustribus found in this way its visual expression, typically known by the Italian term uomini illustri.

[8] The portrait heads are located high on the walls of the U-shaped floor, running above the windows, with paintings several feet apart spaced out by images mainly of books.

[2] The Pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres (Paris 1584) of André Thévet was used for many of the Church Fathers and medieval theologians, and some of the classical authors.

The Icones virorum illustrium series of volumes of 50 (Frankfurt, from 1598) of Jean-Jacques Boissard and Theodore de Bry supplied many models for the heads of humanists.

Other classical authors and humanists were taken from the Opus chronographicum of Pieter van Opmeer (Antwerp 1611):[2] its posthumous edition contained woodcut illustrations in the style of portrait medals.