Cartographic table, Nuremberg, c. 1553

The excitement generated by the new technologies for capturing entire countries and continents cartographically was reflected in the proliferation in the sixteenth century of a wide variety of objects featuring maps. Some sense of this variety is provided by the objects and images in this section.

Here, for instance, we have a round table piece featuring a map of the Iberian Peninsula. The map is painted on the back of a pane of polished round rock crystal which rests on a slate plate. The seas were painted in the most expensive pigment of the time, lapis lazuli, the original bright blue colour of which has faded over time to a dull grey. This single object therefore combines scientific knowledge, practical mathematics, state-of-the-art visualisation techniques, exquisite craftsmanship, and precious materials. Its fabrication therefore required collaboration between artisans with very different skillsets: it is attributed to the German draughtsman, mathematician, and cartographer Augustin Hirschvogel (1503 – 1553) and the celebrated Nuremberg silversmith, Webnzel Jamnitzer (1507/8 – 1585).

Commentary: Howard Hotson (March 2024), derived in part from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Literature: J. van Bennekom en D.J. Biemond, 'A Golden Landscape in an Ultramarine Sea: Research into the "Spanish Map" of 1552-53', The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 60 (2012), nr. 2, p. 100-115.