University of Virginia Library

THE PORTRAITS OF COLUMBUS

It is a universal desire among men to know how the great characters of the past appeared as they walked among their fellows. About five hundred different portraits of Columbus are known to collectors, but there is no proof that any one of them was painted or drawn from life. There is no record that he ever sat to an artist, and one of his most careful biographers declares that all the existing portraits are based on nothing more than "pure fancy." They certainly differ in the most extraordinary way, as will be seen from the specimens reproduced on these pages. Whether there is or is not a truthful presentment among them, most of them must be utterly inaccurate.

There is a verbal description of Columbus by his son Fernando, which ought to be trustworthy. Moreover, in many respects, though not in all respects, it tallies with what we learn from four other authorities. It tells us that the navigator was of more than medium stature, well formed, neither lean nor corpulent, of long visage, with high cheekbones. His nose was aquiline, his eyes light, his complexion fair and of a "lively color." His son says that his hair became white at the age of thirty, but the Spanish historian Oviedo, who saw him in Barcelona

PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, SAID TO HAVE BEEN PAINTED IN 1519 BY SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO

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

after the first voyage, says that his hair was red.