Really old maps are often the best maps

“Maps and paintings were like walled cities: the subject was contained and complete; the idea formed its own frame… the idea of the picture was likely to extend to the picture’s very edges. One might say that the picture was formed by the edges. One might say that the picture was formed by the edges. Medieval painting can be thought of as an art of assemblage, but the Renaissance painter could no longer freely dispose the component parts of his picture to form a perfect, self-enclosed system. He could, in principle, only change the relationship among the three elements that formed his picture-designing system: the vantage point, the imaginary window, and the (real or imagined) motif. His picture was now a segment of a continuum, part of a larger whole, and the fact gave new authority to the picture’s edges – the means by which the world was edited.” -John Szarkowski, “Photography Until Now”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/5978900/Worlds-oldest-map-Spanish-cave-has-landscape-from-14000-years-ago.html

1 Comment

  1. Oh, the joy that comes from maps. Then age. How could it get any better?


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