Fasti of the Gonzagas

[1] He had been commissioned to produce a Battle of Lepanto for the Palazzo Ducale in Venice in 1571, which was widely praised and whose reputation may have reached Mantua, a city which at that time kept a close eye on Venetian art trends.

[3] The sum received for the commission was relatively small considering the large size of the canvases,[a] their huge number of figures and the speed with which they were produced, all explaining the major contribution of Tintoretto's workshop, including his son Domenico.

It brings the cycle full circle, showing - like the first work - a representative of the main European power of the time arriving in Mantua and honouring or promoting a member of the Gonzaga family.

[6] It is the only work in the cycle for which the commissioner's specifications do not survive, though one was probably provided - it is known Tintoretto was sent a print of the piazza Castello in Mantua, where Francesco III Gonzaga had welcomed Philip.

[8] It also bears similarities to the account of the Mantua visit in the 1575 Vita dell'invittissimo, e sacratissimo Imperator Carlo V by Alfonso de Ulloa.

This impression is reinforced by its similarities to The Sending of the Venetian Ambassadors to Frederick Barbarossa by Domenico, produced around ten years after the Fasti.

[14] The other drawing's attribution to Costa is more certain and shows Ludovico's son Guido at a night battle at Borgoforte on the River Po during his time as "capitano del popolo".