Mangroves - Captured by the keen eye of a 17th century landscape painter
Koedam, N.; Dahdouh-Guebas, F.; Barcellos, R.L.; Van der Stocken, T. (2017). Mangroves - Captured by the keen eye of a 17th century landscape painter. Dutch Crossing-Journal of Low Countries Studies 41(3): 247-263. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03096564.2016.1246166
In: Dutch Crossing-Journal of Low Countries Studies: Abingdon. ISSN 0309-6564; e-ISSN 1759-7854, more
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| Author keywords |
Brazil; colonialism; Dutch East India Company; Dutch West India Company;Itamaraca; landscape painting; VOC; WIC |
| Authors | | Top |
- Koedam, N., more
- Dahdouh-Guebas, F., more
- Barcellos, R.L.
- Van der Stocken, T., more
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| Abstract |
Artists and scientists alike came across unfamiliar landscapes and strikingly strange fauna and flora when they embarked for the 'colonies'. In the 17th and 18th centuries curiosity for the exotic developed into direct scientific observation, which is often still appreciated scientifically today, such as in biological taxonomy. Often observation, interpretation and reporting were geared towards functional aspects, aresourcist view on the environment in the wake of the colonial enterprise. This entailed that focus could be biased towards aspects of mercantile, political or strategic interest. Landscape vision is no exception for the possible biases. The Dutch painter Frans Post during his 7 year stay in the New World (Brazil) in the 17th century was the first to depict mangroves as a very characteristic tropical vegetation, unfamiliar to Europeans, in spite of its limited interest in the context of colonial economy. He did this in the strong and developing tradition of Dutch landscape painting. |
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