3-098-899 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba at the Battle of Cerignola, 1835. Alternative title: The Great Captain, touring the battlefield of Cerignola. An episode from the Second Italian War between the French and the Spanish. Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, Count of Guise, and Viceroy of Naples on behalf of Louis XII, was killed by an arquebus shot during the battle fought on April 28, 1503. French troops under his command faced the Spanish army led by Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1453-1515), in one of the most celebrated victories of the troops sent to Italy by the Catholic Monarchs to recover the Kingdom of Naples, which had been seized from the Spanish Crown by the French. The day after the battle, at first light, the Great Captain, along with his officers, surveyed the battlefield, which was littered with nearly three thousand dead and wounded, among whom he found the body of the young nobleman. Filled with sorrow and grief, the Spanish general ordered the Duke's body to be taken to the Church of San Francesco in Barletta, where he was buried with all the honours befitting his rank. On the left is a procession of lancers and armed officers, among whom is Prince Marco Antonio Colonna.