Portal de Cartagena
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The painting 'Squares of Columbus and Corvera', by Francisco Portela, is the work chosen as part of the quarter of the Palacio de Molina.
The painting was recently restored by the Municipal Restoration Workshop.
It is an oil on canvas of the nineteenth century in which you can see two naval squadrons, on the left side the squadron of Columbus, formed by the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Girl and to the right the squadron of Corvera.
The act of presentation of the work was attended by the councilor of Archaeological Heritage, Ricardo Segado, and the director general of Historical Heritage and Archeology, María del Carmen Berrocal.
Both have explained what has been the restoration and the meaning of the work, as well as have glossed the relationship of its author with the city of Cartagena.
The intervention made to the painting consisted, as the mayor explained, in "an average cleaning of the varnish" of the work.
'Squares of Columbus and Corvera' is an oil on a single canvas that is divided into two scenes separated from each other by a vertical wooden strip representing the timeline.
In the left vignette you can see the three caravels with which Cristólo Colón reached the New World, with the Santa Maria in front;
On the other side, Corvera's squadron was seen, with the ship Cristóbal Colón in head at the time of its departure towards Santiago de Cuba to fight in War Spanish-American of 1898.
Christopher Columbus, as explained by Carmen Berrocal, was the fifth ship of the Spanish Navy in history with that name.
It was an armored cruiser bought in Italy, the most modern and fast of the time, but endowed with an inadequate artillery as it had no long range cannons.
It was precisely this that ultimately determined his fate.
As the squadron retired after the American capture of the bay of Santiago de Cuba in the celebrated battle, the coal was exhausted, with which the commander and his crew decided to embark it and to sink it as long as it could not be captured and reused By enemy troops.
This heroic act of valor and honor is one of the moments that are a source of pride in one of the most relevant, fateful and tragic episodes of national history, that black 1898 in which Spain was once a vast empire in which Never set the sun lost its last colonies and overseas territories.
Portela's picture thus combines two of the country's most prominent episodes, the birth of a new world order with this nation at its head and its decline, relating in a single work two equally remarkable acts for the delivery of their Men, one in a moment of splendor and the other even in defeat.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Francisco Portela (1869-1950) was born in Puerto Real, Cadiz, although he lived in Cartagena since he was 13 years old.
He was the son of a captain of the merchant navy.
In his adolescence studied Drawing in the classes of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country of Cartagena, of which later he would be professor, as also it was of the Elementary and Superior Industrial School and of the School of Commerce.
His study and that of Vicente Ros were the only academies of initiation in the Cartagena painting of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Matters related to the navy may be considered his favorite subject by the number of works on this subject that he made, as well as that which alludes to the shipyards.
The author of this work received several medals;
One in 1900 for 'Southeastern Days' and another in 1908 for 'From Trafalgar to Casablanca' - which he exhibited at the Spanish-French exhibition.
Also Cruz Roja de Madrid awarded him the silver medal for the painting 'First Maritime Ambulance'.
He was also offered the Third Class Plate of Naval Merit, but did not accept it in an act of humility.
Portela participated in exhibitions in Murcia, Cartagena, Madrid and Tetuan.
His paintings can be found nowadays in places like the City council of Melilla, the City council of Cartagena, the Church of the Carmen and the Artillery Park.
INITIATIVE 'PIECE OF THE QUARTER'
The presentation of this restored work is part of the initiative of the quarterly presentation of the works finished by the Municipal Restoration Workshop.
In the two previous periods, the work 'El Sagrado Corazón de María', by the Cuban painter from Cartagena in the 19th century, Manuel Wssell de Guimbarda, and a double work by an unknown author, a portrait of King Alfonso XII His back wore a board game
Source: Ayuntamiento de Cartagena
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