^ "^ «v *V '•'"' 
 
 
 
 
 ^^-^^^ V 
 
 
 
 
 
 A-^ 
 
 O. * , , ' .0 
 
 \>/ 
 
 ♦ AT ^ • 
 
 ^^ .^ *^^^^^'. V,/ :^K^ -^^A 
 
 
 ' . . • 
 
 
 
 0" * 
 
 
 
 
 
y ^. 
 
 
 
 'oo .,**\'j^i.V ..0*..-'^%% .**\«j<i:%.V .0^. 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 MONOGRAPH 
 
 JAMES D. BUTLEK, LL.D 
 
 MADISON, WIS., 1883 
 
PORTRAITS or COLUMBUS. 
 
 MONOGRAPH 
 
 JAMES D. BUTLER, LL.D 
 
 MADISON, WIS., 1883. 
 

[From the Collections of the State Historical Society, 1883.] 
 
 PORTRAITS OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 BY PROF. JAMES D. BUTLER, LL. D. 
 
 Governor Fairchild : ^ 
 
 In behalf of the Historical Society, I have the honor — and it 
 is a very pleasant duty — to thank you for your generous gift. 
 Nothing you could bring us from the ancient kingdom where you 
 have so ably represented our country, could be more acceptable 
 to us. It is a present exactly in keeping with our endeavors dur- 
 ing a whole generation. One by one have we hung up in our 
 Picture Grallery the likenesses of our State pioneers, as well as of 
 others famous each after his own fashion in our annals. But the 
 grand link thus far lacking in the chain of our pictorial history, 
 you were among the first to observe to be missing, and you have 
 made haste to supply that missing link. 
 
 In this labor of love you have followed the footsteps of an 
 illustrious predecessor. When Jefferson was the American min- 
 ister in Paris, about 1784, he engaged an artist to take the best 
 copy possible of what passed for the most authentic Columbian 
 likeness in existence, — the Medici portrait in Florence ^ — and the 
 original, as most critics think, of the present you bring us to-day. 
 This painting was with Jefferson during his Presidency, and he 
 writes about it as one of his chief jewels at Monticello in 1814 
 In his drawing room there, it hung the second among four por- 
 traits on the left as one entered. If Virginia had had any Histor- 
 ical Society in his time,^ he must have delighted to enshrine his 
 
 ' Hon. Lucius Fairchild, while United States Minister at Madrid, admiring 
 the fine Yanez portrait of Columbus, in the Spanish National Library, closely 
 resembling the famous likeness in the Florentine Gallery, he at once 
 caused a copy to be made by the eminent artist, M. Hernandez, of that city, 
 for the special purpose of adding it to the art collection of our Historical 
 Society. It was a happy thought, promptly and gracefully carried into exe- 
 cution. L. C. D. 
 
 2 Jefferson's Works, Vol. VI, pp. 343, 375. Domestic Life, Sarah N. Randolph. 
 
 •The Virginia Historical Society was not founded until five years after 
 Jefferson's death, or in 1831. 
 
4 "Wisconsin State Historical Society. 
 
 pictorial memorial within its walls, deeming it as be wrote, " a 
 matter even of public concern that our country should not be 
 without it." 
 
 What has become of this Jeflfersonian relic, is a question we 
 naturally ask. I have corresponded regarding it with Lossing, 
 who has illustrated so many of our worthies, and with Parton, 
 tlie latest biographer of Jefferson. Neither of them could give 
 me any inkling of its fate. I next wrote to Miss Sarah N. Ean- 
 dolph, a great grand-daughter of Jefferson, and the author of a 
 volume on his Di^raestic Life. In her answer were these words: 
 
 " The Columbus and other portraits having been reserved at 
 the sale of Mr. Jefferson's effects, were sent to Boston, where it 
 was supposed, there would be a better chance of selling them to 
 advantage. They were intrusted to Mr. Coolidge, who married 
 my aunt. They are both now dead, and I wrote to their daughter, 
 telling her of your desire to know about the Columbus. She 
 writes that she knows nothing of it, and would not know that 
 such a picture had been at Monticello, but for the fact that it is 
 mentioned in my book." " I have often," Miss Randolph contin- 
 ues, wished to trace this picture up ; but suppose there is now no 
 hope of doing so. My uncle has been dead only three years, and 
 a single word from him would have told all." 
 
 Thus my research seemed in vain. Notwithstanding it has 
 been my fortune to discover the lost likeness ; if not America, 
 at least its discoverer. The word Boston in Miss Randolph's let- 
 ter put me on the track. Had I been in that city I would have 
 gone at once to the building of the Massachusetts Historical Soci- 
 ety assured that all historic gems must gravitate thither. But I 
 was a thousand miles away, and so I scrutinized their publica- 
 tions. In their Collections (3rd series, Vol. VII., p. 285), I came 
 to a notice of a portrait of Columbus, presented by Israel Thorn- 
 dike,^ and in their Proceedings (Vol. II., pp. 23, 25), I observed 
 
 ' To the same merchant prince of Boston, Harvard owes the gift of a treas- 
 ure, which the German Professor, Ebeling, had been fifty years in collecting, 
 and which, at his death, was the finest in existence, namely, nearly four 
 thousand volumes of books relative to America, and almost ten thousand 
 maps, charts and views. 
 
Portraits of Columbus. 5 
 
 that tbe donor, in his letter of presentation (Nov. 26, 1835), de- 
 scribed the Columbian portrait as " a copy from an original in the 
 Gallery of Medicis (sic), at Florence, for Thomas Jefferson." 
 
 It was a pleasure to ascertain that Jefferson's favorite hangs 
 just where he would have it — in the hall of that Society which 
 has done most to elucidate the annals of the country over which 
 Jefferson presided, and of the Continent which Columbus revealed. 
 
 In 1814, Mr. Delaplaine, father of our townsman, was publish- 
 ing in Philadelpia his "Repository of Distinguished Americans." 
 He made strenuous efforts to obtain for his frontispiece a drawing 
 from the Jeffersonian portrait. Failing in this endeavor, he was 
 forced to have recourse to a painting by Macella, copied from some 
 fancy portrait,^ cased in plate armor, and lettuce ruffs, with fea- 
 tures as divergent as the costume from the genuine type. 
 
 Investigations of every sort regarding Columbus are now 
 seasoned by special seasonableness, inasmuch as we have already 
 entered the last decade before the fourth centennial anniversary 
 of the great discovery, — an era that will be celebrated from pole 
 to pole. 
 
 In tracing the Jeffersonian portrait of Columbus, I first be- 
 came aware that no monograph on the general subject of Colum- 
 bian portraits was discoverable in English, and scarcely in any 
 language. The only article I found was- a gossipy letter in a 
 New York daily paper from Irving in his old age, which showed 
 that he had never given the subject more than superficial atten- 
 tion. In Poole's corpulent Index to seven thousand volumes of 
 periodicals, you can detect no single paper concerning portraits of 
 Columbus. My treatment of the theme then is tilling a virgin 
 field. 
 
 My investigation has brought me into correspondence with all 
 the world. Among those to whom I owe special thanks are Gen- 
 eral B. Alvord, U. S. A., of Washington ; Professor Norton, of 
 Harvard University; Mary Cowden Clarke; the United States 
 ministers or consuls in Mexico, Lisbon and Genoa; Chief Justice 
 Daly, of New York; H. A. Homes, W. C. Todd, Bela Hubbard, 
 
 ' Larousse — " Purely fanciful." Jefferson's Work's, Vol. VI, pp. 343, 375. 
 
6 Wisconsin State Histobical Society. 
 
 E. M. Barton, Miss Sarah K Randolph, A. H. Hoyt, Mellen 
 Chamberlain, William H. Wyman, George H. Moore, John 
 Ward Dean, John R. Bartlett, Ralph U. James, and the Diike of 
 Veragua himself. 
 
 . The oldest Columbian portrait of which I discover any trace 
 in the United States, now hangs in the New York Senate Cham- 
 ber at Albany. It was presented to the State in 1784, by Mrs. 
 Maria Farmer, a grand-daughter of Jacob Leisler, Governor of 
 New York, in 1689. According to her statement the painting 
 had been in her family for a hundred and Gfty years. It may 
 then have been brought from Europe more than two centuries 
 ago. In one corner it bears the inscription, " anno [1592] or 
 1492, Act. 23." This legend may indicate the year in which the 
 copy was taken, and the age of the copyist.^ This likeness is of 
 a younger man than we can believe Columbus to have been when 
 his first portrait was painted, and it is not now generally deemed 
 authentic. 
 
 Your gift is small to the eye, but it is great to the mind. I for 
 one could not appreciate its value till after considerable research.^ 
 
 ' Catalogue N. Y. State Library, p. 45. Magazine of Amer. History vol. 
 V, p. 446. 
 
 ' During my investigation, engravings of Columbian portraits have come 
 to my knowledge in great numbers. The oldest of all painted likenesses, 
 the Florentine UflSzi, dating from 1568, or probably from an earlier year. A 
 photograph of this has been ordered from Florence. Among those owned 
 by the State Historical Society are the following: 
 
 1. The Giovian wood cut, dating from 1575 or '78. 
 
 2. The Yanez portrait from Madrid, unscoured. 
 
 3. The same, scoured. 
 
 4. The De Bry likeness, Frankfort, 1595. 
 
 5. The Capriolo likeness, Rome, 1598. 
 
 6. The Naples likeness, by Parmigiano. 
 
 7. The Munoz likeness. 
 
 8. The bust in Genoa. 
 
 9. The statue in Genoa. 
 
 10. The Bryant and Gay likeness from an old map. 
 
 11. The Harper Magazine likeness. 
 
 12. The Bibliotbeque National, p. 150, Goodrich. 
 
 13. The Albany likeness. 
 
 14. The Herrera, p. 219, Goodrich. 
 
 15. The Venetian Jlosaic. 
 
 16. A German likeness, p. 882, Goodrich. 
 
 17. The Bernardo likeness. 
 
 18. Columbus as St. Christopher, p. 153, Goodrich. 
 
 19. The Jeflersonian Columbus in Boston, heliotype. 
 
 20. The Crispin de Pas., photograph. 
 
Portraits of Columbus. 7 
 
 The so-called likenesses of Columbus are mostly fancy sketches. 
 As men have made to themselves gods, each after his own 
 national image, so have they portrayed their heroes, and not least 
 our heroic discoverer. The great navigator as represented at 
 Madrid, in the palace of the Duke of Berwick- Alba, is seated on 
 a throne, and arrayed in high colored silks and embroidery, while 
 his features are no more true to nature than his dress. This 
 painting is said to be a copy from a likeness in Havana, which 
 has often been sought for but always in vain.^ It is the original 
 of the largest known Columbian engraving which bears this in- 
 scription : " The original was painted in America by Van Loo." 
 El cuadro original fue pintado en America por Van Loo. When 
 was Van Loo in America? The gods, one would think, must an- 
 nihilate both time and space to make the owner of such a sham 
 happy. Yet a copy of this engraving was highly prized by the 
 late Mr. Lenox, and now adorns his library in Central Park. 
 He supposed that the Duke of Alba portrait had been painted in 
 the lifetime of Columbus.^ 
 
 In the Cuban consistorial hall at Havana, Columbus appears 
 dressed as a familar of the inquisition.^ In one likeness he resem- 
 bles an effeminate Narcissus ; in many others the costume and 
 arrangement of hair are in a style unknown to his century, while 
 his lineaments are treated with no less license than his vestments. 
 Seeing Columbus thus transformed — or rather deformed — we 
 are reminded of personal caricatures in Punch, of Mark Twain, 
 asking "Is he dead?" or of a heathen idol baptized with the 
 name of a saint, so that what was carved for Jupiter becomes Jew 
 Peter. 
 
 More than one canvas passing for a Columbian portrait is a 
 palimpsest ; that is, it shows traces of a former name having been 
 erased in order that the word Columbus might be inscribed. Pro- 
 ductions betraying such an alias remind us of a dinner scene in 
 Mark Twain's " Tramp Abroad." An American complained that 
 
 ' Carderera, p. 8. 
 
 ' Cat. of Tickaor'8 Spanish Books in Boston Public Library, p. 95. Car- 
 derera, p. 23. 
 
 ^Magazine of Amer, History, Vol. 1, p. 510. 
 
8 Wisconsin State Historical Society. 
 
 having ordered champagDe, he had been served with vin ordinaire. 
 The steward took the bottle — saw that it bore the words vin 
 ordinaire, and acknowledged the mistake. He then called a 
 waiter to bring a champagne label, and pasted it on in place of 
 the words objected to, saying, " You now have, sir, what you 
 ordered, and as good champagne as we ever furnish." 
 
 About thirty years ago, Judge Ira Barton, a member of the 
 American Antiquarian Society, in Worcester, Massachusetts, see- 
 ing in the picture gallery at Naples a portrait by Parmigiano 
 which was called Columbus, obtained a copy of it, painted by an 
 Italian artist named Scardino, and gave it to the Society for hang- 
 ing in its hall. But the painter was only three years old at the 
 death of Columbus ; and so even in the view of its donor this 
 painting was only an ideal likeness. In truth, it is not so much 
 as that. According to Professor C. E. Norton, of Cambridge, " it 
 is no longer held by any competent critic to be an authentic like- 
 ness." The Spanish painter and investigator, Carderera, goes fur- 
 ther, and in disproof of its pretensions discourses as follows : 
 
 " We now come to notice the famous portrait which hangs in 
 the Eoyal Museo Borhonico at Naples, attributed to the elegant 
 pencil of Parmigiano. As this celebrated painting has of late 
 misled very respectable persons, and has been reproduced in 
 engravings at Naples, as well as in France and England,^ it seems 
 necessary to subject it to a careful analysis. Bechi, who has de- 
 scribed this beautiful work, confesses that the eminent artist had 
 to paint the portrait from imagination. M. Jomard, of the French 
 National Library, is of the same opinion, and yet advised the 
 Genoese nobles commissioned to raise a statue of the great man 
 that their artists should inspire themselves at this notable print- 
 ing. We must, in many points, differ from the opinions of the 
 two distinguished persons we have just mentioned. Having 
 carefully examined the portrait in Naples, we have come to doubt 
 whether the Parmesan artist intended it to be a likeness of Colum- 
 
 ' This Neapolitan likeness was reproduced as the frontispiece in one of the 
 volumes of Prescott's ** Ferdinand and Isabella.'" It was engraved in 1883 
 by George E. Ferine, expressly for the American EdecticMagazine. It was an 
 odd blunder to make a misnomer the subject of sq fine a work of art. 
 
Portraits of Columbus. 9 
 
 bus at all. There is scarcely any point of resemblance between 
 tbe authentic [word ?] portraits of the Admiral which so clearly 
 reveal the Jrank manner, and a certain courtier-like delicacy and 
 reserve which appear in the Neapolitan canvas. 
 
 " Still more noticeable is the contrast between the garb and 
 austere aspect of our hero, and the exquisite and effeminate deco- 
 rations of a personage whose physiognomy, very long and lean, 
 differs most widely from the oval and strongly marked face of the 
 Admiral, — an aspect noble, clear, and lit up by genius. Neither 
 the hair which adorns the temples of the Neapolitan figure with 
 symmetrical and elegant locks, nor the whiskers and long beard, 
 nor the curls smoothly arranged, were seen, save in rarest excep- 
 tions, in the age of Ferdinand and Isabella, either in Spain, or in 
 Italy, or in other civilized regions of Europe ; much less up to the 
 first years of Charles V., could any one meet with a slashed Grer- 
 man red cap with plume and gold studs. The same may be said 
 concerning other parts of the attire, — as the silk sleeves hooped 
 by fillets, lace about the hands, gloves, a finger ring, and other 
 refinements which characterize a finished gallant of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 It may be said that the medal which adorns the cap in the Nea- 
 politan picture is stamped with a ship steering out beyond the 
 pillars of Hercules. Admit that it does, may it not be no more 
 than one of these devices then so much in vogue, and concerning 
 which Giovio, Euscelli, Cappacio, and other ingenious Italians 
 wrote so many volumes? The vice-king of Catalonia bore as a 
 device the sea-compass; Isabel of Corregio, had for hers two 
 anchors in the sea. Stephen Colonna had two columns painted in 
 the deep sea with a band connecting them, and inscribed His 
 suJfuUa! We could cite a hundred examples of picture restorers 
 destroying accessories and legends, as well as cleansing and 
 retouching audaciously, and for the worse. Who can satisfy us 
 that the Neapolitan portrait has not suffered a similar degra- 
 dation ?" 
 
 On the whole, Carderera decides that Parmigiano's painting had 
 no reference to Columbus ; but was more probably a likeness of 
 one Giberto de Sassuolo. It may be added, that when Parmigiano 
 
10 Wisconsin State Histoeical Society. 
 
 had painted a Venus, and then received a commission for a Virgin 
 Marj, he passed off his queen of beauty, with some trifling 
 ■changes for the queen of saints. Nor were Venus and the Virgin 
 more unlike each other than was a finical courtier to any fair set- 
 ting forth of Columbus. 
 
 Equally untrustworthy has one portrait owned by the Duke of 
 Veragua, a descendant of the great Admiral, now been proved. 
 Eegarding this work, an eminent Spanish artist says : " Its date 
 cannot be earlier than the end of the seventeenth century ; it has 
 whiskers and ruffles which were unknown for more than one gen- 
 eration after Columbus. Nothing more than a copy of this modern 
 fancy is to be seen in the archives of the Indies at Seville, or in 
 the grand engraving published by Munoz." A copy of the Ve- 
 ragua portrait was presented in 1818 to the Pennsylvania Academy 
 of Arts, by E. W. Meade. In the light of subsequent criticism, 
 it turns out a less valuable benefaction than was supposed alike 
 by the donor and by the receivers. 
 
 No less unsatisfactory is the bust in possession of the New 
 York Historical Society. It is a fac simile of an ideal in the Pro- 
 tomoteca of the Capitoline Museum at Eome. There was one 
 picture brought out at Frankfort, in 1595, with two warts on the 
 left cheek and a full bottomed wig, by Theodore Bry, a German 
 engraver, who called it Columbus, and claimed that its original 
 had been executed by order of the Spanish monarchs, when 
 Columbus was about starting on his first voyage. At that early 
 period, however, those sovereigns were so far from caring for his 
 portrait, that they shipped him off beyond the sea to get rid of 
 his presence, which was as vexatious to them as the importunate 
 widow to the unjust judge. Besides, in this painting the physi- 
 ognomy is totally unlike the delineations by the discoverer's 
 intimates. The nose was flat and snub — not aquiline. This 
 mercantile speculation, for it was nothing else, is a Dutch face, and 
 looks as if a Dutchman made it. It is inscribed Indiarum primus 
 inventor. Its pretensions have been exploded by Navarrete.^ 
 
 In looking at this Dutch imposture, I am reminded of the 
 tourist, who, when the skull of St. Peter was exhibited in Eome, 
 
 » Harrisse, Notes, p. 163. Memorias, Vol. VIII, p. 18, Boletin I, 3, 245. 
 
POBTEAITS OF COLUMBUS. 11 
 
 cried out — " I saw another skull of Peter on my way hither." 
 " No doubt you did," said the relic shower, but what you saw was 
 the cranium of Peter, the fisher boy ; what I hold up is the head 
 of Peter the full grown apostle ! " In any view of the matter, 
 what was the Dutch Columbus who had not yet embarked, to him 
 who had crossed and re-crossed the mighty deep, bearing Christ 
 to the Indies, and the Indies to Christendom. But critics are now 
 agreed that there is no likelihood that any portrait whatever of 
 the great discoverer was painted before his great discovery. 
 
 In 1821, Peschiera, commissioned by the city of Genoa to carve 
 a bust which was to stand on a shrine inclosing various autograph 
 papers of Columbus, according to Irving, discarded all portraits 
 known to him, and drew his ideal from ancient descriptions of the 
 great Admiral. His effort gave no permanent satisfaction. His 
 handiwork was ere long supplanted by a second bust, and that in 
 a few years by a third. This three-headed Columbus deserves 
 the name of Cerberus — at least a consecutive, if not a simultane- 
 ous, Cerberus. 
 
 Disgusted with counterfeit presentments of Columbus, which 
 were counterfeits indeed, the authorities of Genoa wishing to 
 erect a worthy monument of its greatest son,^ sought all through 
 the world for his most authentic likeness in order to show forth at 
 the entry of its gates, and in its chief place of concourse, the man 
 himself, and not a mockery of him. The results of this research 
 are worth our noting, and the more as they have not yet appeared 
 in English. After long deliberation the Madrid Historical Society 
 advised the Genoese to model their statue not according to any 
 likeness in Spain, as national pride might have dictated, but by 
 the Florentine painting from which Jefferson's copy was made, as 
 well as according to an ancient wood cut, and an engraving, which 
 had been early derived from the same source with that painting.^ 
 
 What was that source? It was the Museum of Paolo Giovio, 
 on the site of Pliny's villa, by the lake of Como. About the 
 
 ^Carderera, Preface, Boletin, Vol. 1, p. 244. 
 
 '^Bolctin 1,253. No vacilamos en presentar el retrato de Florencia, y el 
 grabado de Capriolo, como los tipos que puedea suministrar raas datos para 
 reproducir la imagen del inslgae Genoves. Carderera p. 11. 
 
12 Wisconsin State Historical Society. 
 
 middle of the sixteenth century, Cristofano dell'Altissimo was 
 despatched to this museum by the Duke of Tuscany to copy 
 portraits. Vasari^ relates that before 1568 he had completed more 
 than two hundred and eighty ~ of them, and that they were then ar- 
 ranged in the Florentine Museum. They hang there to this day. 
 Columbus is No. 397. But whether the face of Columbus was 
 among those painted by Cristofano cannot be proved from Bohn's 
 edition of Vasari, nor by any edition in any language in the Bos- 
 ton Atheneum or Public Library, for I have had them both 
 searched. But all the names are chronicled in the Guinti edi- 
 tion, and perhaps in that alone. 
 
 Despairing for a while of discovering the Giunti edition of 
 Yasari which, half a century ago, was set down in Brunet's Bibli- 
 ography as " rare and much sought for ; " and so of securing the 
 testimony of the only competent and credible witness known to 
 me regarding the origin of the Florentine Columbus, I was all 
 the more delighted to gain the information I desired from Profes- 
 sor Norton, of Harvard University, who wrote me as follows : 
 
 " I am glad to say that I happen to have the Giunti edition of 
 Vasari. The list of portraits in the Museo of the Duke Cosimo 
 occupies three pages and part of a fourth. It begins with Con- 
 dottieri, who are followed by kings and emperors, these by em- 
 perors of the Turks, and other heroes ; these by " heroic men," of 
 whom the first eight are : 
 
 1. Alberto Duro. 
 
 2. Leonardo da 7inci. 
 8. Titiano. 
 
 4. Michael Angelo Buonarroti. 
 
 5. Amerigo Yespucci, 
 
 6. Colomho Genovese? 
 
 7. Ferdinand© Magellane. 
 
 8. Ferdinando Cortese. 
 
 1 Lives of Painters, vol. V., p. 478. 
 
 - In some editions the number is set down as two hundred and fifty. 
 
 *The name Colombo Genovese has been at last discovered by Judge Daly in 
 one other edition of Vasari, namely, the Bologna of 1647. He describes it as 
 hid away in a corner, that is " in the appendix to vol. III., signature F. f. f., 
 third sheet back." — Ms. letter of Judge Daly. 
 
Portraits op Columbus. 13 
 
 The Florentine Columbus then, is not an original, though Mr. 
 lefferson, as was not surprising in his day, had fallen into the 
 nistaken idea that it was. He says : "The Columbus was taken 
 or me from the original, which is in the gallery of Florence. I 
 ay from an original, because it is well known that in collections 
 if any note, anJ that of Florence is the first in the world, no copy 
 3 ever admitted, and an original existing in Genoa would readily 
 »e obtained for a royal collection in Florence.' Vasari names 
 his portrait, but does not say by whom it was made." The 
 Horentine Columbus cannot have been painted later than 1568, 
 7hen Vasari's notice of it was printed. It may be a score of 
 'ears older than that date. It must be, if Columbus was among 
 he first portraits copied by Cristofano. Though not an original, 
 t is older than any other likeness can be proved, and probably 
 Ider than any other one claims to be. Its painter was sent to 
 opy in the Giovian Museum, because there was the best por- 
 rait gallery in existence. Giovio had long lavished labor and 
 ucre alike in forming it.~ 
 
 Before 1546, the Giovian Museum had become so famous that 
 i drew things of like nature to itself. In that year, Giulio Ro- 
 lano bequeathed to it a collection of portraits which Raphael 
 ad had made from stanzas in the Vatican.^ Among these were 
 Iharles YII, King of France; Antonio Colonna, Prince of Sa- 
 3rno; Niccolo Fortebraccio ; Francesco Carmignuola; Cardinal 
 Jessarion ; Francesco Spinola, and Battista da Canneto. As the 
 lace where works of art would be most carefully preserved, best 
 hown, and most appreciated, that repository might well be con- 
 idered the niche which such treasures were ordained to fill. 
 Accordingly it is not incredible, that if any art collector left no 
 jgacy to the Giovian reservoir, his neglect was judged to be such 
 proof of insanity as to warrant breaking his will. 
 
 Ticozzi has published eight volumes, and Bottari various no- 
 ices, evincing Giovio's pains to secure authentic portraits. His 
 itters to Duke Cosmo, to Doni, to Aretino, Titian and others, 
 
 'Jefferson's Works, vol. VI., p. 375. 
 
 - Carderera, p. 11. 
 
 « Vasari, Vol. II, p. 17. 
 
14: Wisconsin State Histobical Socibty. 
 
 show solicitude lest some likenesses were not faithful or worthy 
 of faith. ^ Eegarding the authenticity and accuracy of his Colum- 
 bus, he seems to have had no misgivings. Concerning that hero, 
 his first words are A unc honestissimafronieTiominem^^ — this man 
 with honor so legible on his face. Giovio's residence was not far 
 from his contemporary Giustiniani, whose biographical notice of 
 Columbus antedates all others which have thus far come to light, 
 and who may have guided Giovio to a picture of the discoverer. 
 At the death of Columbus, Giovio was twenty-three years old. 
 He was one of the foremost to recognize the grandeur of the 
 Columbian revelation, and he wrote -."^ "It seems that Columbus 
 is worthy to be honored by the Genoese with a most splendid 
 statue " — !Sic ut Golumhus videri possit qui a Ligurihus luculentis- 
 sima staiua decoreiur. 
 
 While holding this view, and so careful regarding the accuracy 
 of other likenesses, was he negligent regarding Columbus? Hia 
 museum was situated in a Spanish province ; his agents were 
 abroad in Spain, perhaps so early, that if no portrait existed, they 
 could have had one executed. Besides how unlikely, when other 
 honors were showered upon Columbus, and Giovio counted him 
 worthy of the best possible statue, that no one was found to 
 sketch his features, above all since he survived till painters from 
 his native Italy were common in Spain. Chief Justice Daly has 
 furnished me the names of no less than sixteen artists in that 
 peninsula contemporary with Columbus, and any one of whom 
 might have painted him. Those names are as follows : Juan 
 Sanchez de Castro, founder of the Seville school, who survived 
 Columbus ten years; Pedro Sanchez, Juan Nunez, GonzaloDiaz, 
 Nicholas Francisco Pisan, George Ingles, Frutos Flores, Juan 
 Flamenco, Francisco de Amberes, Juan de Flandres, Juao de 
 Borgona, Antonio del Rincon, Peres de Velloldo, Garcia del 
 Barcia, Juan Rodriguez, and perhaps Pedro del Berragueto. 
 
 One of the portraits painted from life secured by Giovio, in the 
 judgment of Crowe and Cavalcaselle,^ was that of Mohammed XL, 
 
 ' Carderera, p. 17. 
 
 * In Christopheri Columbi elogio. 
 
 ' History of Painting in North Italy, Vol. I, p. 125. 
 
PoBTEAiTS OP Columbus. 15 
 
 by Gentile Bellini. Who will believe that Giovio was more 
 anxious to obtain a truthful presentment of a Turk than of a 
 countryman, of the conqueror of an old city than of the discov- 
 erer of the New World ? whom he himself styled " Siupendi 
 alterius et nulli ante saeculo cognita terrarum orhis repertory incom- 
 parabilis Ligurihus honos^ factus mortalium celeherrimus^'' etc. 
 
 The wood cut, which has been already alluded to, was published 
 at Basel, in 1578, to illustrate a eulogy on Columbus that had 
 been written by Giovio. According to its editor, Perna, that 
 wood cut was derived from a portrait in the Giovian Museum, 
 which had been painted from life. His words are these : "T have 
 at much "expense employed an eminent artist to engrave the 
 Giovian portraits painted from life " — and, so far as appears, na 
 others than those painted from life. His language as quoted by 
 Carderera is: Ho mandado dihnjar eon miicho dispendio a un sobre- 
 saliente artista los retratos pintados al vivo (ad vivian), que decora- 
 ban el Museo de Giovio.^ An ancient engraving in the great 
 library of Paris is inscribed : " From a portrait painted from 
 nature {peint sur natwe),^ in the Museum of Giovio, and no other 
 specimen in the vast collection makes that claim. The wood cuts 
 of some other notables in Giovio's book being known to be cor- 
 rect, it is a natural inference that that which represents Columbus 
 is likewise worthy of credit. 
 
 It is also asserted by Spanish critics, that a family likeness to 
 the Giovian type as shown in the Florentine copy, and in the 
 wood cut, is clear in most old and famous likenesses, as in the 
 Belvedere at Vienna, the Borghese at Rome, the Cancellieri from 
 Cuccaro, the Altamira, the Malpica, the Naval Museum,^ the Villa 
 Franca, and the Yanez in Spain,^ From the last of these, bought 
 from Yanez of Granada, in 1763, by the Government, and now 
 hanging in the National Library, your present was painted. 
 
 ' Carderera, p. 15. The Basel edition in tlie Library of Congress bears a 
 date three years earlier than that given by Carderera, namely, 1575. 
 
 ^ Lareusse. 
 
 ' Carderera, p. 11, note. 
 
 * Carderera, pp. 18 and 24. The projecting lower lip and curved nose of 
 the present Duke of Veragua, a lineal descendant of Columbus, resembles 
 the Giovian prototypes. 
 
16 Wisconsin Statb Historical Society. 
 
 The engraving where Columbus holds an octant in his hand, 
 was first published at Cologne, in 1598, by Crispin de Pas 
 [Pasaeus]. When critically examined, it also turns out to be 
 nothing but a free imitation of the Giovian wood cut, which came 
 out in Basel twenty years before.^ 
 
 The portraitures I have last passed in review are the more re- 
 liable, because they show the person of Columbus as we have it 
 described by his own son, as well as by his contemporary, Oviedo ; 
 that is, face large and ruddy, cheek bones rather high, nose aqui- 
 line, eyes light, hair blonde in youth, but at thirty years old 
 already white.^ It would seem, however, from all his pictures, 
 that he must have dyed his hair, — or artists of old, as now, may 
 have loved to show a man still at his best and fullest. 
 
 In the list of Giovian portraits copied by Cristofano, Colum- 
 bus stands between Americus ^nd Magellan. He who disputes 
 the authenticity of Columbus, must push his skepticism 
 further, unless the features of Americus and Magellan are con- 
 firmed by other evidence. If they are, they heighten the cer- 
 tainty that the Columbian likeness is likewise truthful. The 
 Swiss wood cut of 1578, antedates all others ; yet it is by no 
 means in good preservation. Accordingly, the Poman drawing 
 by Capriolo, published in 1596, with another from Cucarro, and 
 the painting in Florence, — the original of yours, as many critics 
 say, — were recommended by Spain to the Genoese as the best 
 models in form and features of the countryman whom they most 
 delighted to honor. 
 
 Thanks to these archetypes, some what idealized it may be, his 
 native city, in 1862, completed a monument to Columbus, de- 
 signed by Canzio,^ which puts to shame our ridiculous figure by 
 the Neapolitan Persico, perched on the capitol steps at Washing- 
 ton, in 18-11:, where he who gave us our Continent is clad in a sort 
 of mail not invented at his era, and standing with the globe poised 
 
 ' Carderera, p. 18. 
 
 ' Carderera, p. 7. La cara larga, las megillas ua poco altas, la nariz agul- 
 lena, los ojos blaacos [garzos Herrera] y il color encendido, etc. 
 
 "A picture of this grand Genoese tribute to Columbus maybe found in 
 fleury Harrisse's Notes on Columbus, p. 183. 
 
POETEAITS OF COLUMBUS. 17 
 
 in his hand like a nine-pin ball, seems ready to bowl it through 
 an alley. 
 
 The grand Genoese statue of Columbus represents him lean- 
 ing on an anchor, and America sitting at his feet. Not far oft 
 there is an inlaid tablet inscribed : 
 
 Bissi, voUi, credi! Ecco un secondo 
 Sorger nuovo dalVoiide ignote mondo. 
 " His wish, his faith, his word; from unknown surges. 
 Behold a second world, new found emerges! " 
 
 The crowning statue on the Genoese monument was first or- 
 dered from the sculptor Bartolotti, or Bartolini, who shortly after 
 died. It was then given to Freccia, wbo had but just finished a 
 rough model when he became a maniac and died. From his 
 model, however, it was finished by Franzone and Svanascini, of 
 Carrara. A good authority also assured me, that " for the features 
 they relied upon a drawing made from a portrait hanging in the 
 palace of the Duke of Yeragua at Madrid, a descendant of Colum- 
 bus. The Duke had the drawing made, and sent it to Genoa for 
 that purpose." 
 
 This statement was made in a private letter from John F. Ha- 
 zelton, United States consul at Genoa. I wish it were correct, for 
 the principal portraits in the possession of the Duke of Veragua 
 are first, one painted from the CucarroMikeness, which is a de- 
 scendant from the Giovian portrait through the Capriolo engrav- 
 ing ; and secondly,^ a copy from the likeness in the National Li- 
 brary (Biblioteca Nacional), the identical Yanez from which our 
 copy was obtained. The Consul was, however, rnisinformed. A 
 letter from the Duke of Yeragua himself assures me, that the 
 Genoese, when building their Columbian monument, did not con- 
 sult loith him at all. The Duke's words are : Los artislos de Gen- 
 ova no me comultaron quando se consirvjo el monumento a quelle se 
 refiere. 
 
 Though so many Columbian portraits point to Giovio's Muse- 
 um as their mother, and bear a family likenes?, as in scale, atti- 
 tude and materia], and the eyes in all look to the right, they dif- 
 
 * Car^erera, p. 23. 
 
 • Ms. letter from Duke of Vera^u^, January 35. 1883. 
 
 2 
 
18 Wisconsin State Historical Society. 
 
 fer in accessories, especially in costume and hair, as well as in ex- 
 pression, ranging from sad to cheerful. The wood-cut and the 
 Florentine copy are so divergent in dress, though the features are 
 alike, that recent critics hold that Giovio had two Columbian like- 
 nesses. The costume in the wood-cut corresponds to what the 
 curate of Palacios,^ Andrea Bernaldez, saw Columbus wearing 
 in June, 1496, namely, a dress in color and fashion like a Fran- 
 ciscan friar's, but shorter, and for devotion, girt with the rope of a 
 cordelier. 
 
 The costume, in your gift, strikes men now exactly as the 
 actual garb of Columbus struck the Spanish curate. While your 
 Columbus was being framed here in Madison, every person who 
 came into the shop said to the workman, " What Catholic priest 
 have you here ? " In the era of Columbus it was a popular 
 faith that no one was sure of salvation unless he died in a relig- 
 ious dress. The religiosity of Columbus was as great as that of 
 
 any man — 
 
 " Who to be sure of Paradise 
 
 Dying put on the weeds of Dominic, 
 
 Or in Franciscan thought to pass disguised. ' 
 
 He was, in fact, buried at Valladolid in the monastery of St. 
 Francis, and that in the habit of a Franciscan friar.~ But as a 
 sailor's garments were then like a Franciscan's, some hold that 
 Columbus chose to be so painted with allusion to what he had 
 himself achieved as a sailor. What costume so befitting the great 
 admiral as that in which, as is most probable, he really stood on 
 his forecastle during the night, when he united forever the two 
 hemispheres hitherto always disjoined? 
 
 The genuineness of the Giovian portrait is argued from its 
 dress being similar to the Franciscan friar's frock. A portrait in 
 such a costume, it is maintained, would never have been admit- 
 ted among those of Americus, Magellan and Cortez, with other 
 military heroes, unless known to be either original or copied from 
 
 ' Vino el Almirante en Castilla en el mes de junio de 1496, vestido de unas 
 ropas de color de habito de San Francisco de Observancia, en la hachura 
 poco menos que habito, y con cordon de San Francisco por devocion. Car- 
 derera, p. 19. 
 
 ^ Carderera, p. 19. 
 
POETEAITS OF COLUMBUS. 19 
 
 one indubi^ably drawn from life. The dress also points to a 
 Spanish origin, because Italian artists already insisted on tricking 
 out their personages — even contemporaries — in the robes of 
 Ancient Romans, as Malone improved the bust on Shakspeare's 
 tomb by whitewashing it all over. 
 
 One point in the Columbian investigation, namely — what has 
 become of the one or more most ancient portraits which adorned 
 the Museum of Giovio, has been strangely neglected. One in- 
 vestigator, however, Carderera, states that the collection was di- 
 vided between the families of two Giovian counts, the descend- 
 ants of whom are still residing in the city of Como. Something 
 of it remained in 1780, when a letter from Giambattista Giovio 
 to Tiraboschi described its relics, which, accordiog to Crowe and 
 Cavalcaselle,^ continued undispersed to the very close of the 
 eighteenth century. It is possible, then, that research about Como 
 may be rewarded by the discovery of a Columbian likeness which 
 shall become as famous in its line as the Vatican Codex is among 
 Biblical manuscripts, — ^ yes, as pre eminent as that Codex would 
 stand if the Alexandrian and Sinaitic codices had never existed. 
 
 In 1763, a portrait of Columbus, with those of Cortez, Lope 
 and Quevedo, was purchased from N. Yanez,^ who had brought 
 it from Granada, by the Spanish Government. No trace of any 
 such picture having been at an earlier period in the Royal Pic- 
 ture Gallery has been detected. So long was the revealer of the 
 "Western Hemisphere unappreciated in Castile and Leon. This 
 Yanez likeness was hung in the National Library [Biblioteca Na- 
 cional] and soon confessed by art critics to resemble closely in 
 features that in the Florentine Uffizi — the oldest of known date, 
 and that from which Jefferson's copy had been taken. It was 
 highly praised by Navarrete,^ in his grand work, which is a nobler 
 monument to Columbus than the labor of an age in piled stones. 
 
 But Spanish artists were long ago satisfied, that the Yanez por- 
 trait had been tampered with by some audacious restorer, and 
 they at length obtained permission to test it with chemicals.* 
 
 * History of Painting in North Italy, Vol. I, p. J 26. London, 1871. 
 «Boletinl. No. 3, p. 367. 
 
 * Same, p. 2r)3. 
 
 « Boletin, vol. 1, No. 4, p. 327. 
 
30 Wisconsin State Historical Society. 
 
 From side to side of the upper margin of the picture there raa 
 the legend Christof, Columbus nori (sic) orbis inventor. 
 These words were first subjected to the artist's test, and as thej 
 vanished, quite another iosoription came out beneath thera, 
 namely, the words Colomb. Lygur. novi orbis repior (sic). 
 The variations not only proved that the likeness [had been re- 
 painted, but that the second painter was inferior to the first, since 
 repertor means to find by seeking, which inventor does not. The 
 testers had no hesitation about proceeding further. The flowing 
 robe with a heavy fur collar, as they said, " more befitting a Mus- 
 covite than a mariner," vanished, while a simple garb, only a 
 closely fitting tunic, and a mantle folded across the breast, rose to 
 view. The eyes, nose, lower lip, facial oval, all assumed a new 
 expression. The air of monastic sadness vanished, 
 
 Senor Cubells and his assistants, who had begun their work 
 nervously, finished it with glad surprise when they beheld the 
 great discoverer throwing off the disguises that had been thrust 
 upon him ; and, as it were, emancipated from the chains with 
 which he was bound in his lifetime, and which were buried in 
 his coffin. 
 
 " As if he whom the asp 
 
 In its marble grasp, 
 Kept close and for ages strangled, 
 
 Got loose from the hold 
 
 Of each serpent fold, 
 And exulted disentangled." 
 
 A copy of this resuscitated Columbus was painted for you, and 
 it forms the present which you bestow on the Historical Society 
 of Wisconsin. 
 
 Carderera, the great Spanish authority on Columbian portraits, 
 regrets that while sojourning at the lake of Como, he had neg- 
 lected to search in all highways and byways for the likeness that 
 stood in the Museum of Giovio there, and which may be still 
 lurking in some unsuspected corner. Friends of mine, now trav- 
 eling abroad, have promised to spend time and money in making 
 such research. 
 
 But some Spanish investigators hold that labors in this direc- 
 tion are needless. Signer Eios y Rios, in a recent Bulletin of 
 
Portraits of Columbus. 21 
 
 the Madrid Academy,' maintains that the long-lost and much de- 
 siderated Giovian portrait — the prototype of which all Colum- 
 bian likenesses o£ any value are copies, has been found already. 
 He holds that the Yanez portrait is nothing less than that Giovian 
 jewel. He adduces many circumstances which serve to thicken 
 other proofs of his position that do demonstrate thinly. Let us 
 trust that this discovery of the great discoverer, which was as 
 unlooked for as his own discovery of America, may prove as un- 
 dubi table. 
 
 In the Yellowstone National Park there are springs strongly 
 impregnated with mineral matter. In one of these, if a man be 
 immersed, as we dip a wick to make a tallow candle, he soon be- 
 comes marble all over, through and through, — in a word, his own 
 statue. It has been suggested that this wonderful spring should 
 be utilized as an economical mode of immortalizing members of 
 Congress, and procuring statues of undisputable accuracy for 
 filling the temple of glory which has been opened in Washing- 
 ton. Our superabundance of statesmen would thus be reduced, 
 as many a celebrity might he led to speedy suicide, in order to be 
 seen by posterity still at his best and fullest. 
 
 However this may be, it cannot be sufliciently regretted that 
 these wonder-working waters were not discovered by the discov- 
 erer of America. In that case we might have had his own form 
 and features eternized in a prototype — yes, an autotype beyond 
 all question or cavil ; and, best of all, one that would never need 
 to be whitewashed, at least not in the Washington sense of the 
 term. 
 
 Certain New York spiritualists, having secured the aid of 
 Leonardo da Yinci, profess to have just supplied the world with 
 the first authentic likeness of Confucius, It may be they will 
 produce a Columbus with claims to accuracy which will rival 
 what you bring us. But outside the gallery of spirit-art you 
 need fear no rivalry. 
 
 Our special thanks are due to you, sir, for this genuine like- 
 ness, because so many counterfeits are abroad. We thank you 
 
 » Boletin, I., 3, 253. 
 
22 Wisconsin State Historical Society. 
 
 the more because it is still disputed, and perhaps doubtful, where 
 the ashes of our great voyager now repose.^ It is claimed in 
 Cuba, that those remains were transported to that island in 1796; 
 but San Bomingans assert that they then, with pious fraud, deliv- 
 ered up only sham relics, while retaining and secreting the verita- 
 ble treasure. Be this as it may, and though every bone of Col- 
 umbus shall turn to dust, till the world can boast no hair of him 
 for memory, thanks to Giovio and his artists, his face, his form, his 
 habit as he lived, triumph over death, and, enshrined in our His- 
 toric Hal], thanks to you, they shall become as familiar as house- 
 hold words to the people of this Commonwealth, where you have 
 served as Chief Magistrate longer than any other man. In the 
 new and noble Gallery now in preparation for our pictures, your 
 benefaction shall close the grandest vista. EsTO perpetua ! 
 
 Note. — Having begged information regarding the portrait of Columbus 
 now in the Wew York capitol of Dr. H. A. Homes, the State librarian, that 
 gentleman has brought to my knowledge several interesting particulars 
 which have long lain, as it were, buried alive, in the Appendix to the Journal 
 of the New York State Senate for the year 1850, pp. 788-793. The substance 
 of the details there given is as follows: 
 
 The Columbian portrait given, in 1784, by Maria Farmer to the Senate of 
 New York, was accepted with grateful acknowledgments. At that time the 
 city of New York wae the seat of the State government, and when, in 1797, 
 the capital was removed to Albany, this picture was left behind. It seems to 
 have been forgotten, and continued neglected or abstracted for many years. 
 On the 26th of March, 1827, however, — thanks perhaps to the publication of 
 Irving's biography — it was resolved by the Senate in Albany, that the Maria 
 Farmer portrait of Columbus be removed from the city of New York, and 
 put up in some suitable place in the Senate Chamber. Accordingly, the clerk 
 of the Senate visited the city of New York, and, after considerable search, 
 discovered in the garret of the city Hall, and identified, the Farmer portrait. 
 Onward from that era this picture has hung either in the Senate Chamber or 
 in its anteroom, and for some years over the fireplace, so that it became much 
 ■warped and injured. Hence, in 1850, it was " restored without changing the 
 picture," by i\ ew York artists, and came to be regarded as one of the princi- 
 pal ornaments of t^e Senate Chamber. 
 
 Leisler, from whom the Columbian portrait had descended to Maria 
 Farmer, had visited Europe, traveling over all its countries. While abroad, 
 he probably procured this portrait, and that from some one of his kindred, 
 
 'Los Restos de Colon, Madrid, 1879. 
 
Portraits of Columbus. 23 
 
 if Mari Farmer's statement that it had been in her family as early as 1630, 
 be correct. 
 
 The date, 1592, inscribed on the portrait, is interpreted by the author of 
 the Appendix as by me, to denote the year in which the picture was made, 
 or copied; and the figures " Aet 23" to signify the age at which Columbus 
 is represented, and that at which he first went to sea. In the background of 
 this work a vessel is painted just sailing away from a small sea port. 
 
■ 138 
 
ci°^ 
 
 
 VO-T*, 
 
 O' 
 
 
 
 .^°^ 
 
 
 
 0^ .- 
 
 i-lOx. 
 
 
 ^'a^"^"^ \'**'*'*''\<^'^ '^<.'"'^?^**0^'^ ^^^''--^^^^^ 
 
 ^-^ .:i5k.% =^ 
 
 ^ - • ■ » Ay 
 
 V ,/% -.l^" /\ 
 
 
 
 ^^..^^l^-^^ .0^..-^.-^ .*^\l^%.V .0^.0 
 
 

 ,ii°v^ 
 
 v^\;iJ^.% 
 
 • no 
 
 "^a.9^^ 
 
 
 
 IV 
 
 ^-i^^ 
 
 • •• 
 
 
 
 X^^" 
 
 .^^r 
 
 .r "^. 
 
 
 o. 4^^ 
 
 ^ .^* / 
 
 • • * A** »*» 
 
 
 .'^°v^ 
 
 • V *•. 
 
 
 
 ^* AT "^ •' 
 
 tP-%. 
 
 
 ,*i°^ 
 
 
 .♦' 
 
 .^^ ^^. 
 
 
 
 
 J* 9 
 
 ^* '-.^IP-" /"•\ --^fiW^'- /\ "' 
 
 -. '^^^.^