Portrait of Christopher Columbus
by ALTISSIMO, Cristofano dell', Oil on canvas, 59 x 42 cm
Christopher Columbus (c. 1451-1506) was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. This portrait was painted half a century after his death. There are no certain contemporary images of the navigator, who was only one among many when he first set out in ships funded in part by Medici money.