Mapping the wet land

Abstract

Although the well-documented cartographic involvement of painters has received some partial academic interest, this essay makes a contextual and comparative analysis of the phenomenon of the painter-cartographer in the Low Countries between 1480 and 1550. Contrary to a previous generation of painters, these artists’ involvement in cartographic mapping projects exceeded a mere chorographic visual input. As their familiarity with geometrical principles and trigonometry increased, so did their involvement shift from a purely aesthetic role towards an active input on the technical and scientific design process. By combining art historical archival research with architectural history and the history of mapmaking, this paper explores new perspectives on what united art and science during the early sixteenth century. It is argued that painters’ cartographical endeavors were never considered a side-business next to their more regular painting commissions, but rather that their cartographic involvement aided artists such as Lanceloot Blondeel, Pieter Pourbus, and Jan van Scorel to elevate their social position by their display of geometrical knowledge and their expertise as ingenious geometers.