The Surrender of Breda By Velázquez

La rendición de Breda (English: The Surrender of Breda) is a painting by Velázquez, painted during the years 1634–35, and inspired while Velázquez was visiting Italy with Ambrogio Spinola, the Genoese general who conquered Breda on June 5, 1625. It is considered one of Velázquez's best artworks. Jan Morris has called it "one of the most Spanish of all pictures". The capture of Breda in 1625 was one of the few major successes of Spanish arms in the latter stages of the Eighty Years' War. The Spanish general, the Genoese aristocrat Ambrogio Spinola, conquered Breda in contradiction to the instructions of his superiors. Before its capture the Spanish government had decided that siege warfare of heavily defended towns of the Low Countries was too wasteful and that it would concentrate on the economic blockade of the Dutch republic. The bulk of Spanish forces were diverted to the unfolding vast Thirty Years War.