The Defense of Cadiz Against the English

Zurbarán painted The Defense of Cadiz Against the English around 1634, one of ten paintings commissioned for the Hall of Realms in the Buen Retiro Palace depicting Spanish military victories under Philip IV. The subject — the repulse of the 1625 English naval attack on Cadiz led by the Duke of Buckingham — was one of the few genuine Spanish military successes of the period, and its celebration in paint served the palace's propagandistic function. Zurbarán's treatment is unusual among his output — primarily religious — and shows him adapting his monumental figure style to the requirements of history painting. The Spanish commanders are depicted with portrait dignity in the foreground while the naval battle unfolds in the distance, combining official commemoration with his characteristic concentration on the human figure.

Zurbarán, more at home with devotional subjects, produces an unusual military composition with stiffly posed commanders in the foreground and the battle viewed distantly across the bay of Cadiz.