Tintoretto created eight monumental paintings on canvas commissioned by Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga for the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua. Divided into two series, the depictions of major events in the history of the House of Gonzaga were to serve the glorification of the princely family. The first work in the cycle shows how Giovanni Francesco Gonzaga is given the ‘princely hat’ in 1433 to mark his ennoblement to margrave on the orders of Emperor Sigismund.