English: Columbus's First Encounter with the Indians, 1492, second pannel from The Columbus Doors, also called the Rogers Doors or Rotunda Doors, Capitol Building, USA. United States Government Work.
The Columbus Doors stand imposingly at the main entrance to the U.S. Capitol Building, almost 17 feet high and weighing 20,000 pounds. The bronze doors are curved, with a semicircular tympanum above two valves that are divided into four each. The details of each scene are finely modeled, and techniques of Renaissance perspective and different levels of relief give each scene a sense of depth.
The life of Columbus begins at the bottom of the left valve and continues in a clockwise progression. In the 6th pannel "Colombus in Chains", Columbus shows his chains to the crowd as he is about to go aboard the vessel that was to take him back to Spain after his third voyage. Don Francisco de Bobadilla, 2nd Governor of the Indies, who was sent to replace Columbus and to investigate charges against him, is pointing to his instructions.
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