With a narrow definition of the phrase “work of art”, certain elements of a decorative map are often left unconsidered by map historians. However, in recent decades, most art historians aim to end the arbitrary cutoff date, seeing that art and science evidently coexisted with cartography throughout the entire history of cartography, from the accurate to the fanciful, and that there should never be a date in which any historian considers eliminating art from the discussion of a map. The latter phase began in the second half of the eighteenth century, where accuracy took priority over the beautiful and aesthetically pleasing cartouches and frames. Most historians classify two periods of mapmaking: a decorative phase, and a scientific phase. While many exhibits of old and rare decorative maps exist, the newest exhibitions actually include modern art that employs a mapping theme. In the 1980’s, four major art exhibits displayed on the themes of art and cartography combined. Beyond that, curators of art in museums have widened their notions of what can be displayed justifiably along the walls of art museums, and with that, the traditional distinction between fine and applied art has broken down. Several art historians have been turning their attention to maps. Seeing as there is an important distinction between form and content regarding cartography, noting that distinction is key in better understanding the art in a map. Some scholars recommend separating the map from its iconographic meaning as an artifact and its function as a carrier of geographical information to better see maps as a work of art. Many mapmakers also dedicated their maps to wealthy or influential individuals in the hopes of selling the map at a higher price. Instead, they would add new designs, re-used the old plates, or added new information somewhere on the map by hand-painting the information. With the introduction of the printing press, mapmakers might not have been able to buy new copperplates every time a geographic area would change. Sometimes, on the other hand, the most up-to-date information would cease to be a priority when cost became a problem. In order to make the most profitable creation, Dutch map publishers needed the most informative and the most aesthetically pleasing map possible. Mapmakers, like artists, made a living through the sale of their artistic creations. The reality was quite different in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however. Most people see mapmakers charting unknown lands while on a ship, braving the waters, storms, jungles, and wild animals all in order to paint a realistic view of the Earth in order for the world to gain knowledge. The connection between a mapmaker and an artist may seem difficult to envision at first. It made the buyers appear more cultured, intelligent, and classier than their peers. Just like a work of art, people would pay exorbitant prices to display a famous “Blaeu” or “Ortelius” map. Before the atlas was invented, wealthy intellectuals would purchase sheet maps one at a time, and hang them on their wall. “Why would such a user-unfriendly atlas sell for $100,000?” one might ask, or even “Why would someone even think of making an atlas of such grandeur?” Through intense research studying the Dutch Golden Age of Cartography in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, research provides the answer: a long-standing intersectional tradition of art and cartography has yet to die.Ĭenturies ago, in Amsterdam, mapmakers used designers, artists, and engravers to sell the most ornate and detailed maps on the market. In 2012 the Guinness Book of World Records named it the biggest and most expensive atlas in the entire world. Earth Platinum Edition not only required its own plane to fly the atlas and its wealthy owners, but it also required six people to lift the atlas. This was the biggest book ever made-1.8 by 1.4 meters, and $100,000. But then, Earth Platinum Edition was released, putting all other atlases to shame. Bound in leather, hand-tooled and hand-gilded, the price was only listed upon application. In 2009, a company named Millennium House published a 580-page monster of an atlas entitled Earth.
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