CHAPTER 2 | DECORATIONS IN CARTOGRAPHY

In the lesson ‘3D drawing part 1, level 2’ you learned how to give a continuous line a top, bottom or side.

I came across this special way of drawing in Dutch land and sea maps from the 17th century (1600-1700). The maps were decorated by artists and were extremely expensive. Reliable maps were vital during the perilous trading journeys by sea. On a map of West Africa I found this frame of the (Latin) text ‘Guineae nova descriptio‘ which means: ‘A new description of Guinea‘ (not to be confused with New Guinea in Indonesia).

Exercise 1: try to frame the name of an existing or invented country with a 3D decoration. 

EXTRA: the following three separate decorations also come from old land and sea maps. I only drew the outlines. You might like to draw one. You can also save the image and print it out if you’d  just like to color one.

That this way of decorating was applied internationally is evident from the following wall decoration in one of the oldest universities in the world, in Coimbra, Portugal. The painting in the octagonal (8-sided) frame with curls refers to the faculty of medicine. The hand from the cloud with the Aesculapius sign (symbol of medicine) means that the highest medicine comes from God. Three paintings for other faculties of the university have exactly the same decorative frame around it, clearly showing that the artists used a standard model.

I found a very special decoration in a map of the Arctic Ocean. In the frame the artist tells a whole story. He hows that it is freezing cold out there, because everywhere from the clouds faces appear which cause harsh winds to blow. The old man on the right tries to warm himself by a fire. The naked man on the left is trying to keep himself alive by eating. Look at how fine lines (hatching) indicate the curves of the clouds, making them look nice and 3D.