Pope Alexander IV Presenting Jacopo Pesaro to St Peter

Italian artist Titian painted this ex-voto around 1510-1511 commemorating the Venetian naval victory at Santa Maura in August 1502. Bishop Jacopo Pesaro, appointed papal legate by Pope Alexander VI, commanded the papal fleet that helped retake the island from the Ottoman Turks. Pesaro kneels with his helmet beside him while war galleys can be seen in action between his head and Saint Peter.

The composition adapts the traditional Venetian formula of a donor being presented to a holy figure, as developed by Giovanni Bellini in whose studio Titian trained. Some scholars suggest Bellini designed the painting while leaving execution to his student. The Pesaro family were prominent Venetian patricians who would later commission Titian's famous Pesaro Madonna.

A later inscription identifies the artist and explains the subject. The painting hangs at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp in Belgium, providing an early example of Titian's developing mastery.