Allégorie de la victoire néerlandaise sur la flotte espagnole à Gibraltar, le 25 avril 1607

On 25 April 1607 a Dutch fleet sailed straight into the Bay of Gibraltar and destroyed the Spanish ships anchored there, a sharp blow in the long war the Dutch Republic was fighting to break free of Spain. The victory was near total, and it helped push both sides toward a truce two years later. It cost the Dutch their commander, Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck, killed by a cannonball in the first minutes of the fighting. Adam Willaerts painted the scene some years afterward, around 1615, one of several versions he made of this battle. He crowds the bay with burning and exploding hulls and lines the foreground shore with onlookers. Heemskerck himself was brought home and buried with full honours in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, where his marble monument still stands.