ABSTRACT
None of the great generals is portrayed more elegantly and more faithfully in a picture according to his true likeness than this Duke of Urbino, who with his arms and embellishments, and the triple insignia of military command is seen as depicted by the hand of the great painter Titian. The son of Sr Giovanni della Rovere, lord of Sinigallia and Prefect of Rome (who was blood-brother of Pope Julius II) and of the lady Joanna, daughter of Federigo, Duke of Urbino, he earned his adoption into the family of Montefeltro by Duke Guido Ubaldo, his mother's brother (whom destiny had given no children), and to be made by the latter heir to his estate. It can therefore easily be believed that in his honourable temper he mingled the force and ready energy of his father's race with the valiant wisdom and discipline in war characteristic of the house of Montefeltro, so that he might carry off the highest military honours.
