Gonzaga Cycle: Ludovico Gonzaga Defeats the Venetians at Legnago

In fifteenth-century Italy wars were fought by hired captains who changed employers when the terms improved, and Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, was one of them. In the mid-1430s he commanded the armies of Venice. By 1439 he had gone over to the Duke of Milan, now at war with Venice and its allies Florence, Genoa and the pope, and near Legnago, on the river Adige, his Milanese troops won an unexpected victory. Look at the right-hand edge of the canvas, though. The commander shown there is his son Ludovico, a far less successful soldier, honoured here with his father's battle. The first half of the cycle gave each of the four marquises of Mantua a scene of his own, and this one is Ludovico's.