Pastel and Colored Pencil

16 x 20

 

Who is buried in Columbus' tomb?  Actually, that's not an unreasonable question because 500 years after his death the issue is still under debate.  It is generally accepted that the remains of Christopher Columbus are interred in Seville Cathedral, but the route that his body took to get to that place has been somewhat convoluted over time.  The remains were first buried in Valladolid and then at the monastery of La Cartuja in Seville but in 1542, at the insistence of Columbus' son Diego, his body was transferred to Santo Domingo in eastern Hispaniola. When the French took over Hispaniola in 1795 the body was moved again, this time to Havana.  Cuba became independent from Spain following the Spanish-American War in 1898, and Columbus was moved for the fourth time back to Seville and laid to rest in the Cathedral.  The remains were put into an an elaborate catafalque, and the sarcophagus is carried by the statues of four king each representing the Kingdoms of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Navarre.  Christopher Columbus, it seems, traveled almost as far after he was dead as he did during his three famous voyages to the New World.  After his supposedly final interrment, a lead box bearing an inscription identifying "Don Christopher Columbus" and containing fragments of bone and a bullet was discovered at Santo Domingo in 1877 thereby issuing the question "How many bodies of Christopher Columbus are they and where are they buried?" 

 

It wasn't the Tomb of Columbus that first impressed me when I entered the Cathedral; it was the unearthly golden glow that fills the entire interior of the vast space, an illumination that comes from light reflected off of the vast Gothic retablo of 45 carved scenes from the life of Christ.  This work of Art was the lifetime labor of a single craftsman, Pierre Dancart, and it is the masterpiece of the cathedral.  Not only is it the largest and finest example of Gothic woodcarving in the world, the entire height and breadth of it is covered in sheets of solid gold; Aztec gold, brought to Spain from the Americas. 

 

This image shows the nave of the Cathedral illuminated in that heavenly light in contrast to the dark sillouette of the Tomb of Columbus, held aloft for eternity by the four kings of Spain. 

 

(For an interesting perspective on the world as seen through the eyes of the great explorer, view the image of the Columbus Map.)