In October 1571, the fleet of the Holy League (organized by Pius V, and comprising Spain, Venice, and the Duchies of Savoy, Ferrara, Mantua and Parma), under the command of Don John of Austria, met in battle with the Turkish fleet in the Gulf of Corinth. It was the final turning point in a long period of strife. In the preceding years, the Turks had threatened central Italy (in 1558 they had sacked Sorrento where Tasso’s sister Cornelia narrowly escaped capture), and in 1569, they had attacked Cyprus, a geographically and economically strategic point in the Mediterranean for the Christian ships. Pirate attacks and more generally the Turkish presence had been a threat throughout the sixteenth century, with regular calls for a new war in the East that did not materialize however. The long conflict, which went back to the wars in the Holy Land and later to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, formed the basis for Tasso’s choice of subject-matter in the Goffredo, where he depicted the clash between Pagans and Christians beneath the walls of Jerusalem at the end of the eleventh century. The resounding Christian victory at Lepanto marked a major turning point, effectively putting an end to Turkish expansionism in the West.

Paolo Veronese, Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto, Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia