Page 232 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

Cosa who is recorded as the master-owner of the sents de la Cosa's recantation of the coerced signature read Xpb Ferens ("Christ bearing") and
Santa Maria on the first voyage was a different pledge is unclear. It has been suggested that the who increasingly saw himself in the role of carry-
person). In a celebrated incident that occurred on map, though dated 1500, was completed some ing the divine word to foreign lands. The Virgin
12 June 1494 off the southern coast of Cuba, de la years later. Some scholars believe that the map is and Child are also depicted on the map, in the
Cosa, together with all the other members of the an early copy of the lost original of 1500. Juan de wind rose just to the left of the designation Mare
expedition, signed a document prepared by Co- la Cosa himself participated in three expeditions Oceanum (Ocean Sea), another reference to the
lumbus stating that Cuba was part of a continent. to the Caribbean coast of South America and was missionary character of Spanish sponsorship of
Columbus had been sailing west and was less than killed in 1510 by a poisoned arrow during a slave the voyages.
fifty miles from rounding Cuba's southwestern raid in Cartagena Bay, in what is now Colombia. As is the case with the Catalan Atlas (cat. i),
edge, but he decided at that point to turn back, His impressive map grapples with the problem some of the inscriptions on de la Cosa's map
evidently satisfied that Cuba was indeed part of of representing the newly-known territories appear upside-down or at an angle of 90°, suggest-
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the so-called "Golden Chersonese/ the elongated within the framework of the traditional portolan ing that it was meant to be placed on a table and
peninsula at the southeastern end of Asia that was mappamundi. It is unclear whether the contours looked at from all sides. Although de la Cosa
represented on European maps of the period (see of the mainland that extend north and south of includes information based on the latest voyages
cat. 129). He pressured his crew into supporting the Caribbean are meant to be seen as an exten- to Africa, India, and the New World, the depiction
this idea, which would have proven that he was sion of Asia, which runs off the map at the right. of the eastern regions of Asia has changed little
close to the realms of the Chinese emperor, but It is not even certain whether they are thought to from the time of the Catalan Atlas, and the fig-
his assertion was quickly challenged when he be connected to each other —a representation of ures at the upper right corner of the map are still
returned to Spain. Saint Christopher bearing the Christ child covers the legendary Gog and Magog (see Massing essay
Juan de la Cosa's map shows Cuba as an island. the area to the west of the Caribbean. This pre- "Observations and Beliefs: The World of the
Whether it depends on later information or repre- sumably is meant to refer to Columbus, whose Catalan Atlas" in this catalogue).

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 23!