Portrait of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough

On 13 August 1704 an allied army led by John Churchill beat the French and Bavarians at Blenheim on the Danube, and the news went round every court in the empire. One of those courts belonged to Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, whose troops had been in the line that day. That winter Churchill was travelling the allied capitals, and the Elector's court painter, Adriaen van der Werff, took his likeness. The finished canvas is dated 1705, and it went to Florence as a present to Cosimo the Third, grand duke of Tuscany, whose daughter was married to the Elector. By 1708 it had passed to Cosimo's son Ferdinando. It hangs in the Sala di Marte, the Hall of Mars, under a ceiling Pietro da Cortona covered with the allegory of war.