Columbus Sculpture

There is a gift that certain artists have, the ability to capture a moment so completely that the story is understood before it is explained. That is how I felt standing before the Columbus sculpture at the Museum of Jewish History in Girona.

Created by Frank Meisler in 1994, this is not a single image, but a two-sided panel, each side telling part of a larger story.

The year 1492 is most often remembered for the voyage of Christopher Columbus, the beginning of exploration that would connect continents and reshape the world. One side of the sculpture reflects this moment, showing Columbus at the prow of the Santa Maria, facing outward toward the unknown.

But the sculpture asks you to turn, and to reconsider.

On the other side are the instruments, maps and figures that represent that intellectual foundation of that journey. The navigation and knowledge that made exploration possible were shaped in part by scholars in Spain, including the members of the Jewish community. Among them was Abraham Zacuto, whose work with astronomical tables and the astrolabe contributed to the accuracy of long-distance navigation.

And yet, that same year of 1492, under the Alhambra Decree, Jews were expelled from Spain, forced to leave the very country to which they had contributed so much. 

What Meisler captures in this sculpture is two journeys unfolding at the same time: one of exploration and the other of exile.

History is rarely one story.