3-097-418 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Christopher Columbus in the Convent of La Rábida, 1856. Alternative title: Christopher Columbus at La Rábida Monastery. Columbus (1451-1506) stayed at the friary in Andalucia two years before his famous first voyage, after learning that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had rejected his request for outfitting an expedition in search of the Indies. With the intervention of the guardian of La Rábida and the confessor to Isabella, Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, he was able to have his proposal heard. This was the first history painting awarded the First Medal at the first National Exhibition of Fine Arts, held in Madrid in 1856.