Editing Christopher Columbus (section)

== Physical appearance ==
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| image1            = Fernandez-Virgin of the Navigators (proper inversion).jpg
| width1            = 149
| caption1          = ''[[The Virgin of the Navigators]]'' by [[Alejo Fernández]] (1531–1536)
| image2            = Christopher Columbus Face.jpg
| width2            = 180
| caption2          = Close-up for Fernández's depiction of Columbus
}}

Contemporary descriptions of Columbus, including those by his son Fernando and [[Bartolomé de las Casas]], describe him as taller than average, with light skin (often sunburnt), blue or hazel eyes, high cheekbones and freckled face, an [[aquiline nose]], and blond to reddish hair and beard (until about the age of 30, when it began to whiten).{{Sfn|Morison|1991|pp=43–45}}<ref>Bartolomé de Las Casas, ''Historia de las Indias'', ed. Agustín Millares Carlo, 3 vols. (Mexico City, 1951), book 1, chapter 2, 1:29.</ref> One Spanish commentator described his eyes using the word ''garzos'', now usually translated as "light blue", but it seems to have indicated light grey-green or hazel eyes to Columbus's contemporaries. The word ''rubios'' can mean "blond", "fair", or "ruddy".{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|pp=85–86}} Although an abundance of artwork depicts Columbus, no authentic contemporary portrait is known.<ref name="Wilson1991">{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Ian |title=The Columbus Myth: Did Men of Bristol Reach America Before Columbus? |year=1991 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0-671-71067-5 |page=151 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DHoLAAAAYAAJ&q=%22made%20in%20his%20lifetime%22 |quote=Of Columbus, too, none of the familiarly reproduced portraits is thought to have been made in his lifetime.}}</ref>

A well-known image of Columbus is [[:File:Portrait of a Man, Said to be Christopher Columbus.jpg|a portrait]] by [[Sebastiano del Piombo]], which has been reproduced in many textbooks. It agrees with descriptions of Columbus in that it shows a large man with auburn hair, but the painting dates from 1519 so cannot have been painted from life. Furthermore, the inscription identifying the subject as Columbus was probably added later, and the face shown differs from that of other images.<ref name="Met-Piombo">{{Cite web |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/437645 |title=Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani) &#124; Portrait of a Man, Said to be Christopher Columbus (born about 1446, died 1506) |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref>

Sometime between 1531 and 1536, [[Alejo Fernández]] painted an altarpiece, ''[[The Virgin of the Navigators]]'', that includes a depiction of Columbus.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Linda B. |title=Mary, Mother and Warrior: The Virgin in Spain and the Americas |date=2004 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-70595-1 |page=46}}</ref> The painting was commissioned for a chapel in Seville's [[Casa de Contratación]] (House of Trade) in the [[Alcázar of Seville]] and remains there.<ref name="Phillips2018">{{cite journal |last1=Phillips |first1=Carla Rahn |title=Visualizing Imperium: The Virgin of the Seafarers and Spain's Self-Image in the Early Sixteenth Century |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |date=20 November 2018 |volume=58 |issue=3 |page=816 |doi=10.1353/ren.2008.0864 |s2cid=233339652 |issn=0034-4338}}</ref>

At the [[World's Columbian Exposition]] in 1893, 71 alleged portraits of Columbus were displayed; most of them did not match contemporary descriptions.{{sfn|Morison|1991|pp=47–48}}