Juan Sebastián Elcano returning to Seville in 1522

On April 6, 1920, the 400th Anniversary Committee was established in Gipuzkoa by Royal Decree. It was responsible for coordinating events to commemorate the figure of Juan Sebastián Elcano. As well as celebrations, the Committee decided to commission a series of paintings to illustrate both the sailor and his achievement. These commissions were entrusted to Ignacio Zuloaga, who painted the portrait of Juan Sebastián Elcano that today hangs in the Elcano Hall on the first floor of the Palacio de la Diputación (Delegation Palace). He painted two others, including a depiction of the arrival of the survivors to Seville on the Victoria.

This is the work by Elias Salaverría Inchaurrandieta, a Basque painter who was very prolific in various subjects, including portraiture, historical paintings, and Costumbrismo. Salaverría carried out extensive research and documentation in order to create the work, which was captured on a large canvas, and depicts the survivors disembarking from the destroyed Victoria.

The work housed in the Naval Museum is not the piece of art commissioned in 1920, but a larger scale copy made some 20 years later. This version was part of the Elías Salaverría exhibition presented by the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando), held in the Witcomb Gallery (Galerías Witcomb) in Buenos Aires in 1948.