Johannes Vingboons (1616/1617 –

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, 20 July 1670) was a Dutch

cartographer Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

and watercolourist.

Biography

Amsterdam - Sint Antoniesbreestraat 64-72

Vingboons came from an artistic family. His father David Vinckboons (1576–1632) was a successful painter and, of his five brothers, Philip Vingboons and Justus Vingboons were active as architects. Johannes remained unmarried and lived with a large part of his family in an Amsterdam house and studio on

Sint Antoniesbreestraat The Sint Antoniesbreestraat ("St. Anthony's Broad Street") is a street in the centre of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The street runs south from Nieuwmarkt square to the Sint Antoniesluis sluice gates, where it continues as the Jodenbreestraat. ...

, on the corner of Hoek Salamandersteeg. He began to paint and draw in the making of maps, cartoons and paintings for his father. After their father's death, the sons renovated the building to use as a publishing and printing house. The brothers engaged in designing, and the creation of maps and globes. Five of the six sons were for a time active as a mapmaker. From about 1640 until his death Johannes was a mapmaker, and a watercolourist in the service of the Amsterdam map publisher

Joan Blaeu Joan Blaeu (; 23 September 1596 – 21 December 1673), also called Johannes Blaeu, was a Dutch cartographer and the official cartographer of the Dutch East India Company. Blaeu is most notable for his map published in 1648, which was the fir ...

Work

By combining his traditional expertise as a

with his artistic qualities as a watercolourist, he produced water colors of exotic lands based on scrupulous research. These he based on reports and sketches from masters, helmsmen and merchants on their travels under the orders of the

VOC VOC, VoC or voc may refer to: Science and technology * Open-circuit voltage (VOC), the voltage between two terminals when there is no external load connected * Variant of concern, a category used during the assessment of a new variant of a virus * ...

and GWC. He made city elevations, plans, coastal profiles and sea charts, combining them until he had produced a unique series of images that gave an accurate image of a large part of the world then known to Dutch trade. For many of these areas, his are the earliest images. GezichtOpNieuwAmsterdam

Vingboons's work was unique and a sought after collector's item in its own time for rich private individuals. The largest batch, a series of 130 watercolours bound in three atlases, was bought in 1654 by queen

Christina of Sweden Christina (; 18 December ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. 8 December1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Monarchy of Sweden, Queen of Sweden from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. Her conversion to Catholicism and ...

. After her death these atlases came into the possession of

Pope Alexander VIII Pope Alexander VIII (; 22 April 1610 – 1 February 1691), born Pietro Vito Ottoboni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 October 1689 to his death in February 1691. He is the most recent pope to take the ...

, and now rest in the library of the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

. The next largest collection, more than a hundred works, is in the possession of the

Nationaal Archief The Nationaal Archief (NA) is the national archives of the Netherlands, located in The Hague. It houses collections for the central government, the province of South Holland, and the former County of Holland. There is also material from private in ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. A small number of watercolours are in the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...

library in

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. Four signed

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...

world maps form part of the collection of the

Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum The Maritime Museum (, ) is a maritime museum in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The museum had 419,060 visitors in 2012. It ranked as 11th most visited museum in the Netherlands in 2013. The museum had 300,000 visitors in 2015. In 2017 the mus ...

in Amsterdam. A large part of his work were on show from 27 January to 15 April 2007 at the exhibition "Land in zicht! Vingboons tekent de wereld van de 17e eeuw" (Land ho! Vingboons draws the world of the 17th century) in the

Kunsthal The Kunsthal (; ) is an art space in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It opened in 1992. Overview The museum is situated in the Museumpark of Rotterdam next to the Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam, and in the vicinity of the Museum Boijmans Van Beu ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, organized in cooperation with the Nationaal Archief. The majority had never been exhibited before and never will be again, because of the images' vulnerability and small size. The three bound atlases left the Vatican papal library for the first time for the exhibition.

Sources

The works of Johannes Vingboons online in the Atlas of Mutual HeritageJohannes Vingboons in the Nationaal Archief
*Jacobine E. Huisken, Friso Lammertse, ''Het kunstbedrijf van de familie Vingboons. Schilders, architecten en kaartmakers in de gouden eeuw'', Maarssen, 1989, *Martine Gosselink, Paul Brood, ''Land in zicht. De wereld volgens Vingboons'', Zwolle, 2007, (exhibition catalogue) {{DEFAULTSORT:Vingboons, Johannes 1610s births 1670 deaths Dutch geographers Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Painters from Amsterdam 17th-century Dutch cartographers