Johannes Vingboons (1616/1617 –

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, 20 July 1670) was a Dutch

cartographer Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "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 im ...

and

watercolourist Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

Biography

Amsterdam - Sint Antoniesbreestraat 64-72

Vingboons came from an artistic family. His father

David Vinckboons David Vinckboons (baptized 13 August 1576 – c.1632 ) was a Dutch Golden Age painter born in Mechelen, Southern Netherlands. Vinckboons, whose name is often spelled as Vingboons, Vinghboons, Vinckebonis or Vinckboom, had at least ten chil ...

(1576–1632) was a successful painter and, of his five brothers,

Philip Vingboons Philips Vingboons (or ''Vinckboons'', ''Vinckeboons'', ''Vinckbooms'') ( – 2 October 1678) was a Dutch architect. He was part of the school of Jacob van Campen, that is, Dutch Classicism. Vingboons was especially highly regarded in his native c ...

and

Justus Vingboons Justus Vingboons (or ''Vinckboons'', ''Vinckeboons'') (c. 1620 – c. 1698) was an Amsterdam architect. He was the brother of the better-known architect Philips Vingboons. Like his brother, Justus built in the "Dutch Classicism" style. Works Th ...

were active as architects. Johannes Vingboons 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 Salamandersteeg, now number 64. 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 publisher's and printer's and brought in their own talents too: building designs from the two architects, maps and globes from Johannes. Five of the six sons were for a short or long time active as mapmaker, working together on them. 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) was a Dutch cartographer born in Alkmaar, the son of cartographer Willem Blaeu. Life In 1620, Blaeu became a doctor of law but he joined the work of his father. In 1635, they published ...

Work

By combining his traditional expertise as a cartographer 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 that 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

WIC The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is an American federal assistance program of the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for healthcare and nutritio ...

. 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 ( sv, Kristina, 18 December ( New Style) 1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden in her own right from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. She succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus upon his death ...

. After her death these atlases came into the possession of

Pope Alexander VIII Pope Alexander VIII ( it, Alessandro 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 to date the las ...

, and now rest in the library of the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

. The next largest collection, more than hundred works, is in the possession of the National Archives in the Hague. A small number of watercolours are in the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...

library in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. Four signed parchment world maps form part of the collection of the

Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum The National Maritime Museum ( nl, Het Scheepvaartmuseum, ) 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 300,00 ...

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 ( en, Art Hall) is an art museum in Rotterdam. 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 Beuni ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, organized in cooperation with the National Archives. 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 Dutch cartographers 1616 births 1670 deaths Dutch geographers Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Painters from Amsterdam 17th-century Dutch cartographers