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Portrait of a Man, Said to be Christopher Columbus (born about 1446, died 1506)

1519
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 625

Whether this portrait actually depicts Christopher Columbus is debatable, but from the time it was first engraved around 1590 it became the authoritative likeness of the explorer who launched the Spanish crown’s violent colonization of the Americas. Columbus’s four voyages between 1492 and 1504 literally began to map a project of extracting human and natural resources that ensured the dominance of Spain and Catholicism on a global scale for over two centuries. The date of 1519 on this badly damaged portrait indicates that, if it represents Columbus, it was painted posthumously. An explanation may come, however, from the visit of Columbus’s son to Rome in 1516–17, where the highly regarded artist Sebastiano del Piombo would have been an appropriate choice to memorialize his father.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Portrait of a Man, Said to be Christopher Columbus (born about 1446, died 1506)
  • Artist: Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani) (Italian, Venice (?) 1485/86–1547 Rome)
  • Date: 1519
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 42 x 34 3/4 in. (106.7 x 88.3 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900
  • Object Number: 00.18.2
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
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The Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist, Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani) Italian, Black and some white chalk, on blue paper
The Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist
Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani)
1485–1547
Head of an Old Woman, Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani) Italian, Pen and brown ink on buff paper
Head of an Old Woman
Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani)
1485–1547
Pope Clement VII, Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani) Italian, Oil on canvas
Returned to lender
Pope Clement VII
Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani)
ca. 1525–26
The Baptism of Christ, Jacopo Bassano (Jacopo da Ponte) Italian, Oil on canvas
The Baptism of Christ
Jacopo Bassano (Jacopo da Ponte)
ca. 1590
The Entombment, Moretto da Brescia (Alessandro Bonvicino) Italian, Oil on canvas
The Entombment
Moretto da Brescia (Alessandro Bonvicino)
1554

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