220 



COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 



Fray Bartliolome de Las Casas was also an intimate friend of Colum 

 bus. From him, also, we know that Columbus had red hair and freckles, 

 keen gray eyes and aquiline nose, a large mouth and a sad expression 

 of countenance, which was the result of much mental suffering. From 

 him we know, too, that he was unusually reticent, but spoke with great 



fervor and fluency when so inclined. He 

 describes him, too, as a lover of justice, 

 but quick in anger when there was reason 

 for it. 



These verbal portraits do not coincide 

 with many of the pictures which bear the 

 name of Columbus, and most of them were 

 doubtless painted without a knowledge 

 of what had been written of his ap 

 pearance. The only portrait which is 

 positively known to have been drawn 

 during the life of the discoverer was a 

 caricature, the sketch of La Cosa, the pilot. 



THE LA COSA. 



No. 1. THE LA COSA VIGNETTE. 



Juan de la Cosa was the pilot of Columbus, aiid made the first chart of the West 

 Indies. It was drawn upon an oxhide, and is inscribed: &quot; Juan de la Cosa la Fijo 

 en el Puerto de St. Maria en ano de 

 1500.&quot; At the top, in the center, is 

 a rude vignette, drawn Avith an 

 ordinary pen and an awkward hand, 

 representing St. Christopher bear 

 ing the Christ child across a stream, 

 and meant to be symbolical of Co 

 lumbus carrying Christianity to 

 the New World. It was one of the 

 legends of the day that La Cosa 

 intended to give St. Christopher 

 the features of Columbus. Baron 

 von Humboldt, who had heard ot 

 the chart, found it in Paris, in 1832, 

 in the library of Herr Walcknaer, 

 from whom it was purchased by the 

 Spanish Government, and it now 

 hangs in the Naval Museum at 

 Madrid 



The several pictures which are 

 intended to represent the real or 

 the ideal Columbus may be grouped 

 into four classes, as follows : 



(1) Those of the Giovio type 



either copies of the portrait which hung in the gallery of the archbishop of Como, 

 or drawn from verbal descriptions given of the Admiral by his contemporaries, upon 

 which that was undoubtedly based. 



(2) The De Bry type, representing Columbus as a Dutchman. 



(3) The portraits with beards and costumes of the century subsequent to his 

 death. 



(4) The fanciful pictures without pretense to authenticity. 



THE CAPRIOLO. 

 See page 222. 



