3-098-577 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Expedition of Don Lope de Hoces to Brazil, c1636. One of a series of six paintings, five of them relating to the military campaign of Captain General Lope de Hoces against the Dutch in Brazil between November 1635 and February 1636. Lope de Hoces led the reinforcement of 4,000 men to the Brazilian strongholds, although without being able to enter Pernambuco due to the great draft of his galleons, a moment that constitutes the precise subject of this painting. We witness the moment when the Spanish flagship, under the command of Don Lope, fires a cannon shot, attempting to reach the enemy ships still retreating to join the others on the beach, where the flagships and four galleons of the Spanish-Portuguese fleet could not reach them. A rowing boat bearing the Castilian coat of arms follows the enemy, while a smaller galleon advances on a Dutch galley. Among Hoces' fleet were 17 flags bearing the Portuguese coat of arms and another 13 white flags with the royal arms of Castile or the Cross of Saint Andrew of the House of Burgundy, while the fleet of the United Provinces numbered no fewer than 26 ships. To their right, on the coast, appear three Dutch fortresses of different types (circular, quadrangular, and pentagonal), seemingly taken from a treatise on military fortifications.