Description:
By the mid-16th century, Dutch and Flemish engravers had introduced ornate elements into mapmaking to the extent that a map’s design competed with its geography for the viewer’s attention. Beyond mere decoration, the engravings tucked into the landscape and along a map’s border contributed to European perceptions of the Americas. Mapmakers frequently duplicated these influential and exotic images. Overton copied much of his map’s geography, and the portraits, city views, and Native figures, from a map by Robert Walton (London, 1650), who had borrowed from Nicholas Visscher’s America Nova Description (Amsterdam, 1636). Visscher’s map was itself a copy of a 1614 map of the same title done by Petrus Kaerius in Amsterdam. Map titled "A New and most Exact Map / of / AMERICA / Described by NI Vischer and don / into English Enlarged and corrected according / to I Bleau and Others with the habits of ye / people of ye manner of ye Cheife sitties ye like never before / LONDON / Printed colloured and are to be found by John Overton at ye White gate / horse neere the Fountaine Tavern without Newgate." The map, which is printed in black and hand-colored, depicts North and South America, and Spain and the eastern tip of North Africa, and has small images of Natives, city maps and scenes, and explorers around teh four borders. By the mid 16th century, Dutch and Flemish engravers had introduced ornate elements into mapmaking to the extent that a map's design competed with its geography for the viewer's attention. Beyond mere decoration, the engravings tucked into the landscape and along the map's border contributed to European perceptions of the Americas. Mapmakers frequently duplicated these influential and exotic images. Overton copied much of his map's geography, the portraits, city views, and Native figures, from a map by Robert Walton (London, 1650), who had borrowed from Nicholas Visscher's "America Nova Description" (Amsterdam, 1636). Visscher's map was itself a copy of a 1614 map of the same title done by Petrus Kaerius (1571-1646) in Amsterdam. This version of
Subjects:
Watercolor painting Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+65.223 |
