Shaping the European north and its mirabilia in Italian mural maps of the Late Renaissance

Abstract

ABSTRACT The cartographic image of the peripheral European north was vague in the European political and cultural centers of the Late Renaissance, where the ethos was flavored by ambitions of supremacy through exploration and the Counter-Reformation. Maps were practical and symbolic manifestations of those aims. The author discusses the cartographic image-shaping of the European north in the mural atlases of three Late Renaissance Italian galleries. The article’s iconographic scope is derived from the concept of the cycle of mural maps. Holistically interpreted, the cycles of maps reveal the muralists’ desire to satisfy their patron’s will by designing the space according to various cartographic skills and artistic principles. The mural atlases are interpreted as fundamental elements of such cycles. The study is based on personal observations made in the galleries along with existing literature. The map cycles reveal the impulse during the Later Renaissance for obtaining up-to-date geographical information about the European northern periphery. The study reveals Olaus Magnus’s important role in upgrading geographical knowledge about the region, and how in the mural maps reflect his cartographic perception. The author concludes that Olaus Magnus’s depiction of the geographical shape of the European north impacted the iconography of the studied map cycles.