17th-Century Galleons Based on Engravings, Paintings, Drawings, and Descriptions of the Period

This watercolor shows a 17th-century Castilian and Dutch galleon. The galleon is a type of boat that appeared in the first half of the 16th century as a development of the galley and the carrack, although it had a more refined hull and was larger than the previous vessels. The ship was built for military purposes to be part of the armadas and fleets of the Indies as its load capacity, combined with its size and sail, made it ideal for ocean crossings.

The painting is part of a series of 92 works titled "Graphic History of Naval Construction" created by the pilot, researcher, painter, and Naval Museum restorer Rafael Monleón Torres (1843–1900) during the final 2 decades of the 19th century.

The drawings have a similar formal structure: in the center is a watercolor about 32 x 48 centimeters in size on top of a larger piece of white laid paper with an 8-centimeter border on each side. In this border, Monleón drew different pen studies of the boats featured in the main scene with accompanying explanatory text.

As a whole, the series represents a detailed study of the development of naval architecture from ancient forms of navigation to the most modern turn-of-the-century ships. Monleón also produced a handwritten dictionary, "Artistic Aspects of Naval Constructions," which is now held at the Naval Museum.