FLORENTINE SCHOOL, LATE 16TH CENTURY

It is possible that the inscription at the upper edge of the present painting is actually intended to read as 'HEROE LEPANTO', rather than as a name. Don Juan de Austria (1547-1578), illegitimate son of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, was 24 when he led the fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic states, to victory against the Ottoman Empire in the Gulf of Patras in the Battle of Lepanto.