View source for Christopher Columbus Explaining His Intended Voyage

{{Short description|Painting by David Wilkie}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image_file=Christopher Columbus Explaining His Intended Voyage.png
| title=Christopher Columbus Explaining His Intended Voyage
| image_size=350px
| artist=[[David Wilkie (artist)|David Wilkie]]
| year=1834
| type=[[Oil painting|Oil on canvas]]
| height_metric=148.6
| width_metric=188.6
| metric_unit=cm
| imperial_unit=in
| museum=[[North Carolina Museum of Art]]
| city=[[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]]
}}
'''''Christopher Columbus Explaining His Intended Voyage''''' is an 1834 [[history painting]] by the British [[artist]] [[David Wilkie (artist)|David Wilkie]].<ref>Bury p.579</ref><ref>Tomans p.233</ref> It is held in the collection of the [[North Carolina Museum of Art]] in [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]].<ref>https://ncartmuseum.org/object/christopher-columbus-in-the-convent-of-la-rabida-explaining-his-intended-voyage/</ref>
==History and description==
It depicts a scene in 1485 at the [[La Rábida Friary]] in [[Province of Huelva|Huelva]] when the [[explorer]] [[Christopher Columbus]] sets out his plans to reach [[Asia]] by sailing westwards. Departing seven years later he was [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus|instead to land in the Americas]], a major moment in the [[Age of Discovery]]. It is also known by the longer title ''Christopher Columbus in the Convent of La Rabida Explaining His Intended Voyage''.<ref>Bowron p.127</ref>
Wilkie had visited [[Spain]] in the late 1820s, where he had met and befriended the American author [[Washington Irving]]. The painting was inspired by a passage from Irving's [[A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus|biography of Christopher Columbus]].<ref>Tromans p.295</ref> Having failed in an attempt to gain backing in [[Portugal]] for his planned voyage, Columbus arrived in Spain with his young son [[Diego Columbus|Diego]] to seek [[patronage]]. The support and backing from the [[Prior (ecclesiastical)|prior]] [[Juan Pérez (friar)|Juan Pérez]] proved a turning point in securing the eventual backing of [[Isabella I of Castile|Queen Isabella]].<ref>Tromans p.295-96</ref>
It contains a notable [[anachronism]]. In the background the [[navigator]] [[Martín Alonso Pinzón]] holds a [[telescope]], an instrument that had not been invented in the [[fifteenth century]].<ref>Tromans p.295</ref> The composition of the painting was inspired by ''[[Pilgrims at Emmaus|Supper at Emmaus]]'' by [[Titian]].<ref>Tromans p.296</ref>
It was displayed at the [[Royal Academy]]'s [[Summer Exhibition]] at [[Somerset House]] in 1835, and was the last in his phase of Spanish-themed subjects.<ref>Tromans p.13</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Bibliography==
* Bowron, Edgar Peters. ''The North Carolina Museum of Art: Introduction to the Collections''. North Carolina Museum of Art, 1983.
* Bury, Stephen (ed.) ''Benezit Dictionary of British Graphic Artists and Illustrators, Volume 1''. OUP, 2012.
* Tromans, Nicholas. ''David Wilkie: The People's Painter''. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
{{David Wilkie}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christopher Columbus Explaining His Intended Voyage}}
[[Category:1834 paintings]]
[[Category:History paintings]]
[[Category:Paintings by David Wilkie]]
[[Category:Paintings in the North Carolina Museum of Art]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Christopher Columbus]]