Mbanza Kongo (São Salvador)Engraving from O[lfert] Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge (Amsterdam), pp. 562–63
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Based in Amsterdam, the scholar-geographer Olfert Dapper compiled accounts and trade reports from agents of the Dutch West Indies Company. Under the Kongo king Garcia II (r. 1641–60), an alliance was cemented with the Dutch in which they jointly sought to expel the Portuguese from Luanda and the hinterland. Given the accuracy of the topographical views in Dapper’s publication, an artist may have accompanied the Dutch embassy to the Kongo capital, São Salvador, that settled that agreement. In this view of the city seen from the valley, Garcia’s two-story residency sits at the summit of the mountain.
Artwork Details
- Title: Mbanza Kongo (São Salvador)Engraving from O[lfert] Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge (Amsterdam), pp. 562–63
- Author: Olfert Dapper (Dutch, 1635–1689)
- Publisher: Jacob van Meurs (Dutch, 1619–1680)
- Date: 1668
- Geography: Netherlands, Amsterdam
- Culture: Dutch
- Medium: printed paper with 20th century cloth binding
- Dimensions: 9 3/4 × 13 15/16 in. (24.8 × 35.4 cm)
- Classification: Books
- Credit Line: Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing