"In 1492 Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue"
Columbus Day honors Italian-born Christopher Columbus, whose persistent efforts to reach Asia via the Atlantic Ocean led to a European "discovery" of the Americas. Columbus made his voyages across the Atlantic under the sponsorship of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs of Aragon, Castile, and Leon in Spain. Columbus before the Queen, by the Philadelphia painter Peter F. Rothermel, ostensibly portrays the exchange between Isabella and the future explorer who at least figuratively, gave birth to America.
The queen, whose hands are dramatically crossed beneath a large jeweled pendant, listens sympathetically to Columbus's plea for funds to launch his expedition to the Americas.… The globe is strategically placed between the two figures, on the drapery extending from the dais on which the queen stands. On Isabella's right is Ferdinand, less convinced of Columbus's project and attended by an openly suspicious counselor. With awe clearly written across his upturned features, a scribe connects the two groups visually, counteracting the king's skepticism.
Source: National Museum of American Art (CD-ROM) (New York and Washington D.C.: MacMillan Digital in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art, 1996).
Pictured: Peter Frederick Rothermel, 1812–95, Columbus before the Queen, 1841, oil, 62 3/8 x 50 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.
Columbus Day honors Italian-born Christopher Columbus, whose persistent efforts to reach Asia via the Atlantic Ocean led to a European "discovery" of the Americas. Columbus made his voyages across the Atlantic under the sponsorship of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs of Aragon, Castile, and Leon in Spain. Columbus before the Queen, by the Philadelphia painter Peter F. Rothermel, ostensibly portrays the exchange between Isabella and the future explorer who at least figuratively, gave birth to America.