Lot 74: Tito Lessi (Italian, 1858-1917)

Toscanelli et les ambassadeurs de Portugal signed, inscribed and dated 'Tito.Lessi.Firenze.1903' (lower left) oil on panel 211/4 x 273/4 in. (55 x 70.5 cm.) PROVENANCE National Association of Artists, Piazza Pitti, Florence Gallerie Sedelmeyer, Paris EXHIBITION Paris Salon, 1904 NOTES In July 1459, a meeting took place in Florence between the famous savant Paolo Toscanelli and the ambassadors of King Alphonse V of Portugal; where Toscanelli advanced his theory of the possibility of travelling to the West Indies by a more direct route across the Atlantic ocean. Fifteen years later, he communicated this theory to Christopher Columbus and, on this basis in 1492, during the reign of Ferdinand V, King of Spain, Columbus he discovered the Americas.