# Death of Gaston de Foix in the Battle of Ravenna on 11 April 1512 [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [SCHEFFER, Ary]() - Date: 1801-1850 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm ## Commentary Death of Gaston de Foix in the Battle of Ravenna on 11 April 1512 c. 1824 Oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg 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. ## Related artworks - [Faust and Marguerite in the Garden]() - [Greek Women Imploring for Assistance]() - [Portrait of a Man at his Desk]() - [Portrait of Frédéric Chopin]() - [The Death of Géricault]() - [The Ghosts of Paolo and Francesca Appear to Dante and Virgil]() - [The Ghosts of Paolo and Francesca Appear to Dante and Virgil]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()