University of Virginia Library

TWO SPANISH PORTRAITS OF COLUMBUS

Both of the portraits reproduced on page 53 are in Madrid, and both are among the most familiar pictures of Columbus. Again, however, there is no proof of their authenticity.

The first of the two was painted for the Spanish Ministry of Marine as one of

THE PARMIGIANO PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS, IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM AT NAPLES

[Description: grayscale; head and shoulders portrait, with beard and hat]

a series of famous admirals, but the official authorities possess no further data as to its origin. It is known to have been executed long after the navigator's death, and must be either a copy of some older portrait or a work of the artist's imagination. The face, however, seems to agree with the quoted description of Columbus.

The Yanez portrait is in the National Library, Madrid. When acquired for that collection it showed Columbus with a fur collar; but as there was evidence that this detail had been added by the brush of a later and inferior painter, it was decided to remove it. The result, as will be seen, corresponds closely with the same part of the portrait in the Ministry of Marine.