Titian, <i>Following Victory at Lepanto, Felipe II offers Prince Fernando to Heaven</i>, 1572-1575, oil on canvas, 335 × 274 cm
<i>Philip II offering Fernando to Victory.</i> <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Museo_del_Prado" title="Museo del Prado">Museo del Prado</a>, Madrid.<br>Painted by <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Titian" title="Titian">Titian</a> in his nineties, this allegorical work celebrates the victory of a Catholic coalition over the Ottoman Turks at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lepanto_(1571)" class="extiw" title="w:Battle of Lepanto (1571)">Battle of Lepanto</a> in 1571 and the birth shortly afterwards of a male heir to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_II_of_Spain" class="extiw" title="w:Philip II of Spain">King Philip II of Spain</a>, Don Fernando, which were both seen as signs of God's favour. The battle is shown in the background, and a bound and defeated Turk at Philip's feet. An angel descends from heaven bearing a palm branch with a motto for Fernando, who is held up by Philip: "<i>Majora tibi</i>" (may you achieve greater deeds). Titian died in 1576 and Prince Fernando in 1578. Lepanto effectively ended Ottoman ambitions in the western Mediterranean. (Reference: Robert Enggass and Jonathan Brown, <i>Italian and Spanish Art, 1600–1750: Sources and Documents</i>, Evanston: IL: Northwestern University Press, 1992, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0810110652" title="Special:BookSources/0810110652">ISBN 0810110652</a>, p. 213.
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Titian" class="extiw" title="w:en:Titian"><span title="Italian painter (c.1490-1576)">Titian</span></a>
</bdi>
between circa 1573 and circa 1575 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1573-00-00T00:00:00Z/8,P1319,+1573-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1575-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902</div>
Niccolò Capponi, <i>Victory of the West: The Story of the Battle of Lepanto</i>, London: Macmillan, 2006, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781405045889" title="Special:BookSources/9781405045889">ISBN 9781405045889</a>.