2023 Essays

The Virgin of the Rose and the battle of Lepanto in Gallipoli

Querejazu, Lucía

At the entrance to the cloister of the Dominican convent of Gallipoli, a fresco depicts the genealogical tree of the Aragonese and Habsburg royal families (Fig. 1). On the lower branches of the tree are several members of the family of the founder of the Dominican Order, Dominic de Guzmán. Next to the tree, on the adjacent wall, we see a rolled green curtain that opens onto a representation of the Virgin of the Rose (or Virgin of the Rosary) on the right and, on the left, a procession in front of the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome. Below these two scenes, we see one of the most common representations of the Battle of Lepanto: the clash between La Capitana, led by Don Juan de Austria, and the Ottoman ship of Ali Pasha, each followed by their respective fleets.