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This is a bonus post on Columbus for paying subscribers. The next post will be on Columbus’ first voyage.
Almost everything we think we know about Columbus’ life is contested. It’s impossible to say for certain where he was born, what his heritage was, where his remains lie. Even something as simple as what he looked like is not a settled question.
The painting above is perhaps his most well-known portrait. You’ll see it in books, articles, and on his Wikipedia page. However, this being Columbus, there is a problem. Art historians aren’t certain it actually depicts him at all.
The Genoese navigator died in 1506; this painting is dated 1519, so at the very least it was painted some thirteen years posthumously. Even setting aside the difficulty of recalling a man’s features well over a decade after his death, it’s unlikely del Piombo ever laid eyes on Columbus himself. But there’s a further complication too: the inscription at the top identifying the sailor was almost certainly added later. The most likely explanation for this is that an owner in later centuries wanted to increase the value of the artwork before selling it. Thus, art historian and del Piombo biographer, Michael Hirst, believes this was never a portrait of Columbus at all, but instead depicts an otherwise anonymous cleric from Bologna.
But if this is not Columbus’ face, what did he actually look like?