Unique Map by Leonardo

Posted by Suzanne Hill Apr 7, 2008

On Sunday I visited the Maps exhibit at the Walters Museum. What a spectacle! This was the most engaging and interesting show I’ve seen in months. The maps on display cover a wide variety of subject matter from celestial and make believe terrains to terrestrial locations in all corners of the world to charts showing literacy rates in the U.K. and language distribution in the Balkans before the area was carved up after World War II. The maps are made of materials ranging from typical ones of parchment or cloth to more unusual surfaces like a glass globe, an African memory board, and a map of London on a glove.

One map of chalk and pigment on paper [by Leonard da Vinci c. 1502] is a topographical study of central Italy. It was the first map to indicate elevation with color – in a technique known as hypsometric tinting – rather than small cone-shaped ink lines typically used by his contemporaries to depict terrain. The higher the elevation the darker the brown pigment. The map was conceived as an engineering tool for negotiating the Arno River as part of the war invention services he offered the Duke. In creating the map, Leonardo developed a cartographic technique 300 years before its time.

The exhibit Maps: Finding our Place in the World remains at the Walters through June 8, 2008. Though admission to the Walters is currently free, the exhibit costs $12 admission.