Photo, Print, Drawing Furatena Strait on the Minero River, Province of Vélez. Vélez. Estrecho de Furatena en el río Minero
About this Item
Title
- Furatena Strait on the Minero River, Province of Vélez.
Other Title
- Vélez. Estrecho de Furatena en el río Minero
Summary
- This watercolor by Carmelo Fernández (1809-87) depicts Fura and Tena, two imposing peaks that rise sharply from the Minero River near the valley of the Río Magdalena in what was then the Province of Vélez. The scene is in present-day Boyacá Department, Colombia. The legend of Fura and Tena is the creation myth of the Muzos Indians, who have inhabited this emerald-rich territory for centuries. Fernández was born in San José de Guama, Venezuela, into a well-connected family (he was the nephew of José Antonio Páez, a hero of Venezuelan independence and three times president). He studied art in New York when still a youth. He returned home in 1827 and served in the military, where he mastered topographical drawing. Political turmoil in Venezuela prompted him to move to New Granada (present-day Colombia and Panama) in 1849. There he became the first draftsman for the Comisión Corográfica (Chorographic Commission), which was co-founded and directed by Agustín Codazzi (1793--1859), an Italian-born geographer and engineer. The commission, which began work in 1850, studied the geography, cartography, natural resources, natural history, regional culture, and agriculture of New Granada. In 1850--52 Fernández painted about 30 watercolors in the provinces northeast of Bogotá: Tunja, Pamplona, Ocaña, Socorro, Vélez, and Santander. These works, which are now in the National Library of Colombia, portray the diverse ethnic, racial, and social groups and the varied physical landscape of New Granada. Fernández was succeeded on the commission by Henry Price (1819-1863) and later Manuel María Paz (1820-1902). He returned to Caracas aged 43, where he lived most of the rest of his life. In 1873 he produced his most famous work, a portrait of Símon Bolívar that appears on Venezuelan coins.
Names
- Colombia. Comisión Corográfica Sponsor.
- Fernández, Carmelo, 1809-1887 Artist.
Created / Published
- [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1850.
Headings
- - Colombia--Boyacá
- - 1850
- - Andes (Mountains)
- - Cliffs
- - Expeditions and surveys
- - Regional Memory of the World Register, Scientific Memory of Andean America
- - Rivers
Notes
- - Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
- - Original resource extent: 1 painting : watercolor ; 31 x 22 centimeters.
- - Original resource at: National Library of Colombia.
- - Content in Spanish.
- - Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.
Medium
- 1 online resource.
Source Collection
- Colección Comisión Corográfica
Digital Id
Library of Congress Control Number
- 2021670135
Online Format
- compressed data
- image