Bildnis des Agostino Barbarigo

On the 7th of October 1571 a large Christian fleet smashed the Ottoman navy at Lepanto, off the coast of Greece. Second in command of the Venetian ships was Agostino Barbarigo, and in the fighting an arrow struck him in the face and killed him. Veronese painted this portrait around that same year. Barbarigo stands in polished armour, thoughtful, holding a slender dart, a quiet reference to the arrow that took his life. Venetian commanders were often shown this way, posed like Roman emperors to borrow the authority of the ancient world. News of the battle crossed Europe within weeks, and a portrait of one of its fallen leaders carried real weight. It reached the Cleveland museum in 1928.