Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Iberian peninsula map

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[edit] Iberian peninsula map

An 18th century map of the Iberian Peninsula illustrating various topographical features of the land. The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe, and includes modern day Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra.
An 18th century map of the Iberian Peninsula illustrating various topographical features of the land. The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe, and includes modern day Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra.
Reason
A crisp and clear scan of an 18th century hand-coloured map by the eminent London mapmaker Robert Wilkinson. The map depicts the Iberian Peninsula as it would have appeared over two hundred years ago.
Articles this image appears in
Spain, History of Portugal, Iberian Peninsula
Creator
Robert Wilkinson (English mapmaker, active 1785-1825)
  • Support as nominator — Chris Buttigieg 17:17, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Support Beautiful picture, exceptional colour preservation even if it has been touched up or false coloured in photoshop. Nice large size, historical, artistic although a little obscure. WikipedianProlific(Talk) 18:27, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Support Think that's the real colours - I have an old victorian map that's similar. It does look very clean, so it might have had any the paper colour compensated, but even then, it could well just be a very well-preserved specimen. Adam Cuerden talk 22:52, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Comment The nominator says the mapmaker is "eminent" but I don't see an article about him.. Is there any other info about the circumstances under which this map was made? Interesting to note which of the place names are in Spanish and which are in English. Spebudmak 03:38, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
  • I have managed to ferret out some more information about the map and updated the summary accordingly, so have a look. It was published in Robert Wilkinson's General Atlas, 1794. (Volume 2., page 666.). The colours are natural and haven't been manipulated. I was told that when it was hand-coloured, most likely too much water was used and hence these vibrant tones. Chris Buttigieg 13:24, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
    • Actually, that's pretty normal colours for hand tinting, in my experience.. It's pretty similar to watercolour painting. Just that you don't normally get maps that clean. Adam Cuerden talk 20:54, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Neutral I don't know enough about historical cartography to know how this one compares to others from the era. Spebudmak 23:19, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
    • It's a perfectly ordinary high-quality map such as you'd find in a good, expensive atlas. Not unusual, but it's a good scan of a clean copy. I think the detail on the mountains is a nice touch. Chick Bowen 05:10, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Support Even zoomed in, the text is still sharp. Beautiful colours. Matt Deres 13:10, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Support nice image, high quality. --snowolfD4 ( talk / @ ) 13:21, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Promoted Image:Iberian Peninsula antique map.jpg MER-C 02:45, 22 July 2007 (UTC)