'O fortunate land!' : Karel van Mander, 'A West Indies Landscape', and the Dutch discovery of America

Abstract

Looks at the presence of America in early Dutch visual paintings and prints, and the significant role in interpreting Americana played by Karel van Mander. Van Mander was a 16th-c. art historian, painter, poet, and translator. Van Mander's notes reveal a number of developments in Dutch perceptions of the New World and how pervasive incidental Americana had become by the late 16th c.

Keywords

• Netherlands
• Art
• Discovery and Exploration