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Secondary sourcePaintingc. 1900s

Vasco da Gama, painting by Adolfo de Sousa Rodrigues

Adolfo de Sousa Rodrigues · c. 1900s

A circular painted portrait of Vasco da Gama by Adolfo de Sousa Rodrigues, held by the Lisbon Military Museum and reflecting Portuguese memory of him in the 1900s.

Shows how Portugal remembered Gama in the early 1900s, painted by an artist whose work is held by the Lisbon Military Museum.

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Circular painted portrait of a bearded man in a dark blue beret and green and red garments against a gold mosaic background. The name VASCO and DA CAMA appears in dark letters around the edges.
Adolfo de Sousa Rodrigues, Vasco da Gama, c. 1900s. Lisbon Military Museum, Portugal.

About this source

What it is

This is a circular painted portrait of Vasco da Gama by Adolfo de Sousa Rodrigues (1867-1908), dated around the 1900s. It is in the collection of the Lisbon Military Museum in Portugal. The portrait shows a bearded man in a dark blue beret and green and red garments against a gold mosaic background. The names VASCO and DA CAMA appear in dark letters around the edges.

Why it matters

This painting was made by an artist who lived centuries after Gama died in 1524, so it is a later depiction rather than a likeness from life. Its placement in a military museum shows how Portugal linked Gama with national and military memory in the early 1900s. The gold mosaic background and circular frame turn him into a symbol of the nation's past.

Look closer

  • Why do you think the painter chose a gold mosaic background and a circular frame?
  • What does the choice of a military museum suggest about how Gama was remembered?
  • What does this portrait leave out about Gama's actual appearance and the people affected by his voyages?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Vasco da Gama on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Signature of Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama

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1498 or 1499

Hand-painted portolan-style world map on parchment showing the Atlantic, Africa, and parts of Asia and the Americas, with compass roses, rhumb lines, colored flags, and Latin and Portuguese place labels.Document

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Cantino Planisphere

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