Detail, Juan de la Cosa, Carta Universal, 1500,  Museo Naval de Madrid & Biblioteca Virtual del Ministerio de Defensa, Madrid.

On Carta Universal, a religious icon appears in the center of the Atlantic. The Virgin Mary holds the Christ Child, and two angels appear behind. Circling the icon are a series of rings, triangles, and rays. On this circular border are sixteen, evenly spaced isosceles triangles, and from their apexes extend thin straight lines. On another ring, smaller triangles appear, and from them straight lines similarly extend out into the map. In all, thirty-two such rays leave the circle. The icon of the Virgin and Child has been placed at the center of a compass rose. According to Sandra Sáenz-Lopez Pérez, Juan de la Cosa did not paint the icon of the Virgin and Child himself but instead cut and pasted the image into the center of the compass rose and subsequently colored it.*

*Sandra Sáenz-Lopez Pérez, “La Carta de Juan de La Cosa (1500), colofon de la cartografía medieval,” Piezas del Mes, Museo Naval de Madrid 2003/2005, 13.