Francesco II Gonzaga na batalha do Taro

When Tintoretto took this on, the man in charge was Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga of Mantua, who wanted a set of eight large canvases for his palace celebrating his family's soldiers. This one goes back to 1495, to a day by the river Taro near Fornovo, when Francesco Gonzaga led an Italian league against the retreating French army of Charles VIII. The fighting settled almost nothing, and both sides went home claiming they had won. Mantua chose to remember it as Francesco's triumph. Look for him giving orders on the left, the family emblem, a golden sun, set behind his head so it reads almost like a halo. Tintoretto ran the whole cycle out of his busy Venice workshop, his son and assistants filling in around him.