David de Meyne

David de Meyne produced cartographic works that combined maps, portraits and narrative imagery, a format used in early seventeenth-century Dutch visual culture to present geography alongside the history of exploration.^[5]

In 1610 he completed Universi Orbis Tabula De-Integro Delineata, a large world map with inset portraits of the circumnavigators Olivier van Noort, Ferdinand Magellan, Francis Drake, and Thomas Cavendish.^[5] The map combines a geographic representation of the world with portraits commemorating early modern voyages of circumnavigation.^[5]

The design reflects a format used in early seventeenth-century Dutch cartography in which maps were combined with portraits and other imagery. In De Meyne's map the portraits identify explorers whose voyages had circumnavigated the globe.^[5]

The map shows the continents surrounded by the oceans and includes numerous place names known to European navigators in the early seventeenth century. Decorative elements are incorporated alongside the geographic information, a common feature of printed maps of the period.^[5]

The painting View of Ambon (Dutch: Gezicht op Ambon), dating from 1617, has been traditionally attributed to De Meyne.^[5] It formed part of a larger visual representation of Ambon that combined topographical description with portraits and narrative elements connected to Dutch East India Company (VOC) activity in the region.^[5] The work was commissioned by the Heeren XVII, the board of directors of the Dutch East India Company, and hung in the East India House in Amsterdam. Such images also helped present the company's authority and commercial presence in Southeast Asia.^[5] The painting is a homage to Frederik de Houtman, the first governor of the island, and summarizes the island's topography and the interests of the VOC there, particularly the clove trade. Harbors and cities in VOC maps and views such as this, representing the infrastructure that supported Dutch trade, were often depicted as disproportionately large.^[6]

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  Universi Orbis Tabula De-Integro Delineata, 1610, Maritime Museum, Rotterdam
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  View of Ambon, c. 1617, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam