Artist: Severino Baraldi
(biography)Medium: Gouache on Board
Size: 23" x 16" (595mm x 400mm)
Date: 1978
This is the unique original Gouache painting by Severino Baraldi.Vasco da Gama, c. 1460s - 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India (1497 -1499) was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans and, in this way, the West and the Orient.
Da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India was significant and opened the way for an age of global imperialism and for the Portuguese to establish a long-lasting colonial empire in Asia.
Travelling the ocean route allowed the Portuguese to avoid sailing across the highly disputed Mediterranean and traversing the dangerous Arabian Peninsula. The sum of the distances covered in the outward and return voyages made this expedition the longest ocean voyage at that time.
A dramatic scene with Da Gama and some of his sailors lash to the ship to prevent being swept overboard in the rough seas. Some were not so lucky.
Published in Look and Learn issue 844, 18th March 1978.