Joannes Blaeu: Danube

DANVBIVS. FLVIVS EUROPAE MAXIMVS, A FONTIBVS AD OSTIA, Cum omnibus Fluminis, ab utroque latere, in illum fluentibus. (The Danube. The largest European river, from its sources to its mouth, with all the rivers flowing into it from both sides.) 

The original map, published in Amsterdam around 1640, is on display, a copperplate engraving with period hand coloring.

Author:  Joannes (Joan) Blaeu (*1596 Alkmaar – †1673 Amsterdam)

Technique: copperplate engraving (with period hand coloring)

Format: large-format horizontal map

2. This monumental map of the Danube is one of the highlights of 17th-century Baroque cartography. It shows the course of the river from its sources in the Black Forest to its mouth on the Black Sea, including its main tributaries. The composition is designed as a wide horizontal strip following the Danube as the geographical and political axis of Central and Southeastern Europe. Historical Hungary is marked as HUNGARIA and supplemented by a dense network of towns and counties. The relief is depicted by drawing mountain ranges (the Alps, Carpathians, Balkan Mountains), with waterways highlighted in color. The map includes a scale (Scala milliarium Germanicorum et Italicorum) and a regular geographical grid. The map was created at a time when the upper Danube was controlled by the Habsburg Monarchy, while the lower section was under the temporary control of the Ottoman Empire. This situation highlights the strategic and political importance of the river as a transport and defense line. The territory of present-day Slovakia is shown as part of Upper Hungary, with important towns and fortresses marked, documenting the administrative and military position of the region in the Danube area.

3. Artistic representation. The map is decorated with two distinctive Baroque cartouches. The lower cartouche depicts an allegorical representation of the Danube River as a mighty river god with a vessel from which water flows, surrounded by personifications of its tributaries in the form of smaller water deities. The upper title cartouche has a distinctly political character: on the left stands an armed representative of the Christian world with a raised sword and a shield bearing the Habsburg eagle; on the right is an Ottoman warrior – a Turkish conqueror – also with a sword aimed at his opponent. Between them is a dramatic mascarone – the head of a monster – as a symbol of danger and tension. On the right side of the scene, a female allegorical figure tramples on a Christian cross. The godlessness of the conquerors is emphasized by their aggressive stance, pointed swords, and iconographic details such as the trampled Christian cross and the menacing mascarone head. We can assume that the lizard under the feet of the Ottoman figures symbolizes the subjugation, devastation, and disruption of order that the occupation brought.