A Balustrade WA_1944_31-a This decisive battle of 24

This decisive battle of 24 February involved the capture of King Francis I of France (left of centre) and led to the establishment of the Emperor Charles V in Lombardy

It is a highly original painting

The masterly rendition of the fire and distant landscape place him in the forefront of the development of landscape painting

Purgatorio XXVII

that behind it by Alfonso Alberghetti in 1559

A Balustrade WA_1944_31-a This decisive battle of 24The balustrade leads to the front door of the church of SS Domenico e Sisto in Rome. During his visits to Italy, Sargent sought relief from painting portraits and turned to landscapes, both in oils and watercolours. The artist described this as 'a study of a magnificent curved staircase and balustrade, leading to a grand faade that would reduce a millionaire to a worm'. He later used the study for the background to a portrait of Charles E. Eliot,