Hope arrived in the form of a cry with a Huelva accent: “Land!” After five weeks of saltpeter and deprivation, the 88 sailors who had left the port of Palos took a relieved breath. Fate was in front of them. The next morning, October 12, 1492, the leader of the expedition finally set foot in the New World. This is how it was written in the trip diary, compiled by the friar Bartolomé de las Casas: «The Admiral took out the royal flag […] and, placed on land, they saw very green trees and many waters and fruits in various ways». that man was Christopher Columbusand the island on which they landed, Guanahani.
And with Guanahani Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau started his new painting in his mind. Because the painter of battles is also very much a painter of the great deeds in the history of Spain. The Catalan longed to recreate the precise moment in which Columbus and his men left behind the immensity of the Atlantic to open the doors of a new world; virgin, unexplored.
What he stumbled upon, instead, was a historical enigma. “There is controversy with the beach where they landed. I wanted to find the exact point, but it is difficult because there are several theories », he affirms in statements to ABC. In the end, his brushes gave life to a coast: the one he imagines. Supported, yes, in historical data.
A month later, the result transcends historiographical discussions and artificial controversies. ‘the first beach‘, as the work is titled on the advice of Arturo Perez-Reverte – «He always helps me with the titles», affirms the painter–, has come to fill a hole that was getting deeper and deeper: the need for a figurative and credible painting that represented this key moment for humanity. An even more decisive moment than the arrival on the Moon, because, in the words of Ferrer-Dalmau, the entire world benefited from the exploration of the Americas: “The export of something as simple as the potato made it more difficult for European famines.
The canvas, still fresh, fresh from the oven, was presented on Monday at the Ateneo de Madrid in front of personalities such as Antonio Pérez Henares, Carmen Posadas and Juan Eslava Galán.
the mysterious beach
Little information exists in the chronicles about the exact place where the ‘Pinta’, the ‘Niña’ and the ‘Santa María’ arrived. Just a few smudges on the reports. The first time it is mentioned is in the on-board log: «On Friday they arrived at an islet of the Lucayos, which was called Guanahani in the Indian language». The text referred to the original inhabitants of the Bahamas, those who settled in the area in 800 AD. C. Shortly after, Columbus himself left blank that, after exploring several nearby islands, “I named that first San Salvadorin commemoration of His High Majesty, who wonderfully has given all this».
The navigator left a written description of the place, although, due to its characteristics, it could refer to any of the more than seven hundred islands that make up the Bahamas: «It is very large and very flat, and with very green trees and many waters, and a very large lagoon in the middle, without any mountains, and all of it green, which is a pleasure to look at.”
Ferrer-Dalmau, at the inauguration of his master’s degree on military painting
The most widespread theory is that the beach was in what is now San Salvador. Simply, because it is one of the most eastern located in the archipelago and because it would keep the name with which Columbus baptized it. In fact, one of the prominent biographers of the sailor, Admiral Samuel Eliot Morisonconfirmed it in 1942: «There is no doubt, I consider this question closed».
But the final slam of the mystery had not been given. In 1986, the specialized magazine ‘National Geographic’ stirred up the waters of history again after having studied for five years the influence of currents and dejection – the slight change in course of a ship due to the pressure of the wind against the hull – of Columbus’ ships.
After introducing these variables, and taking into account the orientation problems of the time, they determined that it was impossible for them to have reached San Salvador. “To do this, he would have had to travel along an almost straight line, drawn on the bottom of the sea, between the departure and the landfall,” they confirmed. In exchange, they proposed that the beach would actually be on Cayo Samaná, to the southeast.
represent the truth
But Ferrer-Dalmau stays away from controversies. He, he confirms, has illuminated a paradisiacal beach in the Bahamas with the greatest historical fidelity. And he has done it from a different approach: «Until now, classic paintings represented the crew from the front. I have changed the perspective, I show them from the side, pushing the boats with the water up to their ankles». It is a snapshot of the time; less hieratic and idealized than the representations of centuries ago. “I want realism. Get as close as possible to back then. Before, artists tried to show greatness because their works were usually commissioned by kings. Now, historical painting flees from that », he sentences.
On the other end of the phone, the painter of battles confesses. He emphasizes that, although the weight of part of the painting is supported by a “realistic and dressed in a suit without many finery”, the beach is the true protagonist. With some nostalgia he adds that he had an ‘ace’ up his sleeve that has allowed him to speed up his work: «I started as a landscape artist, doing scenes of boats, Catalan beaches… That has allowed me to capture the coast without problems» .
His new work has made him return to youth. Proud of his work, he reveals that detail that he adores: the tone of the waves. Although he does not forget the flag carried by a sailor: «I have changed it. At first I put the Catholic kings, but some historians told me that the sources do not clarify if it was that or not. In the end I have put the captain, who landed safely ».
He says it proudly, because he carries his own flag: that of historical fidelity. One more day of work does not sting if a hat or armor is exact. Especially when, as he himself explains, he had a moral debt with this character: «It is unheard of that I dedicate myself to painting the history of Spain and have never painted Columbus until now». He already touched him, sentence. And once again, he has embroidered it.
Has this painting been especially difficult?
It was an easy frame. I have been a landscape artist and I have painted the sea many times. The beach was not difficult for me.
The ship appears in the painting…
Yes. I have put the nao relatively close. They were shallow draft ships and it is very likely that they entered the bay. Also, aesthetically I wanted to put it close so that the flags could be seen.
Was it time to give a new version of this event?
You have to renew. The paintings they have done are very clean, too well placed. He wanted to give a more realistic perspective of the first moment he set foot in the New World; paint that moment, when he gets off the boat and steps on the ground. It is the equivalent of when man set foot on the Moon.
What do you think of the debate on the beach?
The nice thing is that people turn around and investigate. The debate that can be generated around a painting is very gratifying. That means there is interest.
And of the eternal controversy over the discovery?
We open up a new world and develop that territory. We cannot imagine what the Discovery of America brought to the table. Thanks to Columbus, the United States exists.