page_title: Battle of Lepanto
section_title: Paintings
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Lepanto / Legacy / Paintings
caption_attribution_description: Español: La obra representa al rey Felipe II de España (1527-1598) ofreciendo al Cielo a su hijo, el infante Fernando de Austria (1571-1578), aunque la obra no sólo conmemora el nacimiento de dicho infante sino también la victoria de las tropas cristianas en la batalla de Lepanto, que se libró en 1571.English: Titian, Following Victory at Lepanto, Felipe II offers Prince Fernando to Heaven, 1572-1575, oil on canvas, 335 × 274 cm Philip II offering Fernando to Victory. Museo del Prado, Madrid.Painted by Titian in his nineties, this allegorical work celebrates the victory of a Catholic coalition over the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and the birth shortly afterwards of a male heir to King Philip II of Spain, Don Fernando, which were both seen as signs of God's favour. The battle is shown in the background, and a bound and defeated Turk at Philip's feet. An angel descends from heaven bearing a palm branch with a motto for Fernando, who is held up by Philip: "Majora tibi" (may you achieve greater deeds). Titian died in 1576 and Prince Fernando in 1578. Lepanto effectively ended Ottoman ambitions in the western Mediterranean. (Reference: Robert Enggass and Jonathan Brown, Italian and Spanish Art, 1600–1750: Sources and Documents, Evanston: IL: Northwestern University Press, 1992, ISBN&#160;0810110652, p. 213.
context_page_description: The Battle of Lepanto was a naval engagement that took place on 7 October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic Christian states arranged by Pope Pius V, inflicted a major defeat on the fleet of the Ottoman Empire in the Gulf of Patras. The Ottoman forces were sailing westward from their naval station in Lepanto when they met the fleet of the Holy League which was sailing east from Messina, Sicily. The Spanish Empire and the Venetian Republic were the main powers of the coalition, as the league was largely financed by Philip II of Spain and Venice was the main contributor of ships.
  In the history of naval warfare, Lepanto marks the last major engagement in the Western world to be fought almost entirely between rowing vessels, namely the galleys and galeasses which were the direct descendants of ancient trireme warships. The battle was in essence an "infantry battle on floating platforms". It was the largest naval battle in Western history since classical antiquity, involving more than 400 warships.
context_section_description: There are many pictorial representations of the battle. Prints of the order of battle appeared in Venice and Rome in 1571, and numerous paintings were commissioned, including one in the Doge's Palace, Venice, by Andrea Vicentino on the walls of the Sala dello Scrutinio, which replaced Tintoretto's Victory of Lepanto, destroyed by fire in 1577. Titian painted the battle in the background of an allegorical work showing Philip II of Spain holding his infant son, Don Fernando, his male heir born shortly after the victory, on 4 December 1571. An angel descends from heaven bearing a palm branch with a motto for Fernando, who is held up by Philip: "Majora tibi" (may you achieve greater deeds; Fernando died as a child, in 1578).
  The Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto (c. 1572, oil on canvas, 169 x 137 cm, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice) is a painting by Paolo Veronese. The lower half of the painting shows the events of the battle, whilst at the top a female personification of Venice is presented to the Virgin Mary, with Saint Roch, Saint Peter, Saint Justina, Saint Mark and a group of angels in attendance.
  A painting by Wenceslas Cobergher, dated to the end of the 16th century, now in San Domenico Maggiore, shows what is interpreted as a victory procession in Rome on the return of admiral Colonna. On the stairs of Saint Peter's Basilica, Pius V is visible in front of a kneeling figure, identified as Marcantonio Colonna returning the standard of the Holy League to the pope. On high is the Madonna and child with victory palms.
  Tommaso Dolabella painted his The Battle of Lepanto in c. 1625–1630 on the commission of Stanisław Lubomirski, commander of the Polish left wing in the Battle of Khotyn (1621). The monumental painting (3.05 m × 6.35 m) combines the Polish victory procession following this battle with the backdrop of the Battle of Lepanto. It was later owned by the Dominicans of Poznań and since 1927 has been on display in Wawel Castle, Cracow.
  The Battle of Lepanto by Juan Luna (1887) is displayed at the Spanish Senate in Madrid.
caption: Felipe II offers Prince Fernando to Victory by Titian, c. 1572–1575, Museo del Prado, Madrid
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