Globe

A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Unlike flat maps, globes do not distort the surface they portray except to scale it down, making them simultaneously form-, area-, angle-, and length-true representations. The word derives from the Latin globus, meaning sphere. The earliest known mention of a globe comes from Strabo, describing the Globe of Crates from about 150 BC. The oldest surviving terrestrial globe is Martin Behaim's Erdapfel, made in Nuremberg in 1492, while the oldest surviving celestial globe sits atop the Farnese Atlas, a 2nd-century Roman copy of a Hellenistic sculpture now in the Naples Archaeological Museum. Within the collection under discussion, the globe appears in 64 works, ranging from vanitas still lifes and allegorical compositions to portraits and genre scenes, indicating its persistent value as a meaningful artistic motif across centuries.

The treatment of the globe in art evolved significantly across periods. In antiquity, globes were primarily scientific instruments and sculptural elements, as with the Farnese Atlas. Medieval European art showed little interest in three-dimensional globes, though Islamic cartographers advanced terrestrial globe-making under the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun. The Renaissance marked a turning point: Behaim's Erdapfel (1492) coincided with Columbus's voyages, and Waldseemüller's 1507 globe introduced the name America. By the 16th century, Nuremberg and then Amsterdam became centers of globe production, with makers like Jodocus Hondius and Willem Blaeu creating increasingly sophisticated instruments. The Dutch Golden Age saw globes proliferate in still life and genre painting, where they shifted from instruments of navigation to symbols of intellectual vanity. The collection's concentration of Dutch vanitas works reflects this peak period. By the 18th and 19th centuries, globes became more commonplace educational objects, losing some of their symbolic charge even as they remained popular decorative elements in portraits and interior scenes.

Beyond the collection, canonical artistic depictions of globes span from ancient to modern times. The Farnese Atlas, a 2nd-century AD Roman copy in the Naples Archaeological Museum, remains the most celebrated ancient example, showing the Titan supporting a celestial globe carved with 41 constellations. Martin Behaim's Erdapfel (1492, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg), at 51 cm diameter, is the oldest surviving terrestrial globe, notable for omitting the Americas. The Hunt-Lenox Globe, ca. 1510 (New York Public Library), bears the famous phrase Hic Sunt Dracones and was recently redated to approximately 1530. Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 globe was the first to use printed gores, enabling mass production, and the first to name America. In painting, Johannes Vermeer's The Astronomer and The Geographer (both ca. 1668, Louvre and Städel Museum respectively) feature globes as attributes of scholarly contemplation. The collection's own Portrait of Lucas van Uffel and multiple vanitas still lifes by anonymous or attributed hands constitute significant holdings within this broader tradition.

The globe's afterlife in visual culture extends from its origins as a scientific instrument to its enduring role as a symbol of global consciousness, intellectual ambition, and, paradoxically, human limitation. The shift from manuscript globes to printed gores in the early 16th century democratized access to geographical knowledge, while Amsterdam's dominance in globe production during the 17th century paralleled Dutch commercial and colonial expansion. The vanitas tradition's appropriation of the globe ensured its moralized afterlife in European art long after specific geographical knowledge had advanced beyond early modern globes' numerous errors. Today, antique globes command scholarly and collector interest, with institutions like the Germanisches Nationalmuseum preserving milestones such as the Erdapfel. The motif persists in contemporary art and popular culture as shorthand for globalization, environmental awareness, and the planetary perspective. Within the collection, the globe's appearance across 64 works testifies to its sustained capacity to signify knowledge, mortality, and the human attempt to comprehend and represent the world.