"The Art of Painting" by Johannes Vermeer (see Bas van der Wulp on the artist), partially shown above, is celebrated for its use of light and colour in a complex and allegorical composition. Held now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, their curator has commented on the painting:
With his depiction of the painter in his studio, Vermeer turns this genre painting into an allegory of the art of painting. His model is posing as Clio, the Muse of history, who inspires the painter and proclaims the glory of painting in the old Netherlands, which she has immortalised in the book of history. The unity of the arts is reflected in the sculpture model, sketchbook and the work in progress on the easel. The map with the 17 provinces of the Netherlands before they were divided into north and south is a reference to a land that had always owed its fame to the art of painting.
The map in the background was published by Claes Janszoon Visscher in 1636, and is reproduced here in a painting in exquisite detail by the artist. Vermeer was keenly interested in maps, and uses them in half-a-dozen of his paintings. James A. Welu, who did his doctorate on Vermeer and Cartography, gave a lecture in 2016, titled "Vermeer's Mania for Maps". This interest in maps is not just a personal idiosyncracy of Vermeer, though, but part of his social milieu. Consistent with their role as the leading trading nation in the seventeenth century, the Dutch led the world in cartography and publishing during this period.
Cartography has again burst upon the scene in recent years. Historical maps are colourful and compelling for many people. Geographers hold that maps are a way of introducing more context into our understanding of social patterns. Much intellectual effort now is aimed at figuring out how to better incorporate temporal and spatial contexts into our knowledge of social behaviour. However, if social action is a result of the various purposes and conceptual schemes which individuals hold, then our social understanding, at least for some purposes, must become very local indeed.
The geo-genealogy concept is aimed at combining digital geography with digital genealogy. In our case, the program is aimed at developing a geo-genealogy infrastructure for Nova Scotia using a unique historico-geographical dataset in the A.F. Church maps. Large historical datasets have not previously been available at the household-level of geography in Canada. This program seeks to digitize and make interactive an extraordinary resource which will be used to build a framework for geo-genealogy in the province for use in continuing research, development, and application.
In the pages in this section, we outline the progress we have made to date:
The Concept: https://www.kithobservatory.ca/geogen/the_concept/
Prototype: https://www.kithobservatory.ca/geogen/prototype/
Next Steps: https://www.kithobservatory.ca/geogen/next_steps/
Testimonials: https://www.kithobservatory.ca/geogen/testimonials/