Posted on 04/30/2013 10:42:44 AM PDT by marshmallow
It hasn’t drawn much attention yet, but the Vatican has quietly announced the discovery of what it believes is the first artistic representation of native Americans.
A detail of a fresco by the Renaissance artist Pinturicchio, discovered during restoration work in the Vatican Museums, depicts men dressed only in feathered headdresses who appear to be dancing, and another on horseback.
The painting was completed in 1494, shortly after Christopher Columbus returned from the New World with a detailed description of natives who painted themselves, danced and gave gifts of parrots.
For hundreds of years, the frescoed figures were hiding in plain sight – sort of. They are part of the background in a lunette fresco titled “The Resurrection,” noted for its depiction of Pope Alexander VI, the infamous Rodrigo Borgia, who was elected in 1492.
The detail was obscured by centuries of soot and grime, and came to life only recently when the fresco underwent a careful cleaning by Museum experts.
Vatican Museum director Antonio Paolucci announced the discovery in an article published April 27 by the Vatican newspaper. He stopped short of saying definitively that the figures depicted American Indians, but the newspaper headline was less cautious, proclaiming: “Here is the first image of the native Americans described by Columbus.”
(Excerpt) Read more at johnthavis.com ...
The figures look African to me . .
Where did the Indians get the horses?
Yeah, I was just about to comment on that myself.
That little guy in front doesn’t look so African ...
“Where did the Indians get the horses?”
From the Spanish 200 years after that was painted.
Time to break out the “it must be aliens” guy.
Hey! Is that that Collins guy?
The artist may have inferred that horses were everywhere. It probably took more than two years to determine that no indians had horses.
Ancient story ~ but here the illegal aliens painted some paintings and that's the way it is.
I didn't see a horse in the inset shown above but Columbus, et al, always took horses and pigs with them wherever they went. 20 years can go by in a whiz and the place is full of them. Next year you'd have hots up to your armpits too! The Spanish and other explorers also distributed goats because they can live where even rats starve to death.
Chief Wahoo, is that you?
Well, think for a minute how common horses must have been in Rome at the time. It might have been inconceivable that horses weren’t everywhere. I can’t fault him for making a reasonable inference.
I see a fox or deer head and a raccoon.
No horses.
And they don’t look “African”.
Stupid ain’t a virtue.
If he got enough info about the Indians being there and how they were dressed from the reports of CC, I’d think CC also would have reported they had no horses.
Oh and there’s a cat next to the wolf/fox head ;-)
There’s the answer how the horses got there.
That’s not a cat. It’s a Viking Kitten.
Well before Columbus.
Sometimes it’s easier to notice what is there vs what’s missing. Also there’s no evidence he talked directly to Columbus. It could have been third, forth or fifth hand information.
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