English: Titian, Following Victory at Lepanto, Felipe II offers Prince Fernando to Heaven, 1572-1575, oil on canvas, 335 × 274 cm Philip II offering Fernando to Victory. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Painted by Titian in his nineties, this allegorical work celebrates the victory of a Catholic coalition over the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and the birth shortly afterwards of a male heir to King Philip II of Spain, 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: "Majora tibi" (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, Italian and Spanish Art, 1600–1750: Sources and Documents, Evanston: IL: Northwestern University Press, 1992, ISBN 0810110652, p. 213.