1961-62. Oil on canvas, 308 x 406 cm.
Collection David Nahmad, Mailand
From the first day that he set foot on the pavement of Surrealist Paris, Dali has never ceased to proclaim that most of the pompiers painters and the ultraacademicians, especially Meissonier and the Spanish Mariano Fortuny, were a thousand times more interesting than the representatives of all the aging "isms" of modern art, and the African, Polynesian, Indina, and even Chinese art objects. Therefore, it was normal that, at a certain point in his life, he should come face to face with patriotism, and, as the pompiers did at the end of the nintheenth century, he decided to paint pictures glorifying the history of his country. The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus was painted in 1958 and 1959. This oil antedated Santiago el Grande, which depicts Saint James of Compostela, patron saint of Spain.
Two years after finishing his Discovery of America, Dali produced a third historial work, The Battle of Tetuáa, inspired by Mariano Fortuny`s painting of the same name which is in the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona.
