page_title: The Virgin of the Navigators
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: The Virgin of the Navigators / Description
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Retable de la Vierge des Navigateurs, (ou "des bons vents"), d'Alejo Fernandez, 1535. Cette oeuvre est la première de l'art occidental à représenter des natifs américains, en plus de divers personnages, dont Christophe Colomb, et différents types de navires espagnols du XVIème siècle. Dans les cartels on reconnait de haut en bas et de gauche à droite Saint Sébastien, Saint Jacques, Saint Elme et Saint Jean l'évangéliste. Les navigateurs venaient prier devant cette vierge, et c'est devant ce retable que s'est recueilli Juan Sebastián Elcano au retour du premier voyage autour du monde de l'histoire. Chapelle des quartiers de l'Amiral, Real Alcazar de Séville, Espagne. English: Altarpiece of the Virgin of the Navigators, (or "of the good Breeze"), by Alejo Fernandez, 1535. Around the Virgin, one of the figures is Christopher Columbus. This was the first time American natives had been depicted in European art. One can see different types of vessels of the spanish fleet of the 16th century. The four side panels, from top to bottom and for left to right, show Saint Sebastian, Saint James, Saint Telmo and Saint John the Evangelist. It was here that the sailors bound for the Americas prayed for a good wind to assist them in their crossing, and Juan Sebastián Elcano gave thanks here after completing the first ever circumnavigation of the Earth. Real Alcázar of Seville, Spain. Español: Retablo de la Virgen de los Mareantes (o "del Buen Aire"), obra de Alejo Fernandez, 1535. En el grupo de personajes se cuenta a Cristóbal Colón, y es la primera vez que se represento en Europa a los nativos americanos. Se pueden ver las diferentes tipologías de la flota española del siglo XVI. En los 4 cuarteles laterales, podemos ver San Sebastian y Santiago a la izquierda, San Telmo y San Juan a la derecha. Aqui se postró Juan Sebastián Elcano tras culminar la primera vuelta al mundo de la historia. Capilla del Cuarto del Almirante, Real Alcázar de Sevilla, España.
context_page_description: The Virgin of the Navigators is a painting by Spanish artist Alejo Fernández, created as the central panel of an altarpiece for the chapel of the Casa de Contratación in Alcázar of Seville, Seville, southern Spain. It was probably painted sometime between 1531 and 1536. Carla Rahn Phillips has suggested that it represents Christopher Columbus as a European magus-king reinforcing "the notion that the Spanish Empire represented the fulfillment of biblical prophecy to bring the Christian message to all the peoples of the world.
  The painting is a version of the common iconography of the Virgin of Mercy, in which the Virgin Mary protects the faithful under the folds of her mantle. This was well known from many paintings such as the Madonna of Mercy by the Italian painter Piero della Francesca. In this iconography, the Virgin Mary is always the largest figure in the picture, towering above those being protected.
  Sometime before 1536, officials at the Casa de Contratación commissioned the painting as the central panel of an altarpiece that they installed in the Hall of Audiences, so that the room could also serve as a chapel. Scholars date the painting to 1531–36.
context_section_description: In The Virgin of the Navigators, Mary is depicted spreading her mantle over the Spanish. She straddles the seas, uniting the continents, or hovers over the harbor to protect ships, cargo and crew as they embark on the perilous Atlantic crossing. 
  Ferdinand II of Aragon and the emperor Charles V (cloaked in red), are portrayed together with Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci and one of the Pinzón Brothers, shown kneeling. All soar on clouds above the water beneath the Virgin's feet.  By coincidence another reputed portrait of Vespucci, as a child, is in another Virgin of Mercy which his family commissioned from Domenico Ghirlandaio as a fresco in a church in Florence. 
  Behind the Europeans in the front row, the figures around the Virgin include indigenous peoples of the Americas, converted from their original faiths by the navigators who have set sail in her name: the painting "may be the fullest statement of the approved Spanish ideology, which might be called 'the White Legend of Spain's Imperial Election' ".
  Flanking the Virgin are panels depicting St. Sebastian, St. James the Great, St. Elmo, and St. John the Evangelist. These panels are thought to be the work of someone other than Alejo, perhaps a member of his workshop or another known artist.
caption: The entire altarpiece in the Alcázar of Seville
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