Processing
Pictography painted in oil on panel ‘Picta’ category. Hand-painted in two layers with Maimer and Winsor & Newton colours and worked with magnifying glass. Reliefs in hot chalk, gilding in pure gold leaf; solid wood board with anti-imbalancing crossbars. Solid wood frame gilded in gold leaf. Aging process with colour fading and missing parts. Total dimensions with frame: 70 x 70 cm.
History
Ptolemy's planisphere represents a map of the world as seen by western civilisation in the 2nd century AD. This map was drawn up on the basis of descriptions in the work ‘Geographia’, written around 150 A.D. It includes thousands of references to different locations, accompanied by coordinates that allowed cartographers to reconstruct Ptolemy's geographical concept following the rediscovery of the manuscript in the 14th century. Ptolemy's work constitutes the earliest evidence that uses astronomical observations to determine the latitude and longitude of locations, integrating them into a geographical grid.
Andrea Cellarius, Ptolemaic Planisphere