Map of Juan de la Cosa

by Weston Westmoreland

Title

Map of Juan de la Cosa

Artist

Weston Westmoreland

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

Map of Juan de la Cosa, 1500 AD.

The chart of Juan de la Cosa is the earliest undisputed representation of the Americas and the earliest European World Map to represent the New World. The map is a Spanish mappa mundi painted on parchment, 35 inches high and 72 inches wide. It was made by the Cantabrian cartographer and sailor Juan de la Cosa. Its rich decoration hints at being ordered by some powerful member of the court of the Monarchs who then ruled the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.

The map contains a body of water to the north of Cuba which is within a landmass, a hint of the undiscovered Gulf of Mexico. Some historians have claimed that some of the Antilles appear on earlier maps such as the Pizzigano map of 1424, but there is no consensus about it. Furthermore, the Vinland map shows part of North America but it’s authenticity remains doubtful. The de la Cosa map shows the lands discovered until the late 15th century by Castilian, Portuguese and English expeditions to the Americas. It also depicts a large fraction of the Old World, according to the style of medieval portolan charts and including news of the arrival of Vasco de Gama to India in 1498.

The map of Juan de la Cosa is the only cartographic work made by an eyewitness of the first voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Indies that has been preserved. Possibly as an allusion to Columbus, it contains a large image of Saint Christopher that covers the region in which Central America should have appeared. On the other hand, Cuba is drawn as an island, which contradicts Columbus, who stated that it was a peninsula of Asia.

It also happens it is an exquisite work of art, a delicate polychromy full of color and detail.

Weston Westmoreland.

Uploaded

April 29th, 2021

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