Death of Gaston de Foix in the Battle of Ravenna on 11 April 1512

Gaston de Foix, Duc de Nemours (1489-1512), also known as The Thunderbolt of Italy, was a French military commander noted mostly for his brilliant six-month campaign from 1511 to 1512 during the War of the League of Cambrai. In the decisive Battle of Ravenna on 11 April 1512 Gaston led a cavalry charge against a recalcitrant Spanish infantry unit. He was shot and killed, but the Spanish lost nearly their entire army in the battle.

This painting is a sketch to Scheffer’s large historical composition which became an event in the Salon of 1824 and together with Delacroix’s Massacre of Chios proclaimed the birth of French Romantic painting.