The Battle of Agnadel, 14 May 1509

This history painting, executed in 1837 by Pierre-Jules Jollivet, depicts the Battle of Agnadel, fought on 14 May 1509 between the army of Louis XII and the forces of the Republic of Venice during the War of the League of Cambrai. This decisive victory, in which French infantry and cavalry crushed the Venetian troops commanded by Bartolomeo d'Alviano, lastingly broke Venetian military power and restored French control over the Milanese. Painted more than three centuries after the events, in the monumental style of French Romantic history painting, the work reflects the nineteenth century's fascination with the great military hours of the monarchy, at a time when the Italian Wars fed the national imagination as much as the legend of conqueror-kings such as Louis XII.