Plattegrond van Trier, 1705 1705

Editor: This is "Plattegrond van Trier, 1705" created by Samuel Du Ry de Champdoré using ink on paper. Looking at this landscape rendering, it’s hard to get a grasp of the space; it's not how we'd make a map today. What can you tell me about how cityscapes and their visual representations evolved during this period? Curator: This piece is intriguing precisely because it clashes with modern mapping conventions. Before satellite imagery and precise surveying techniques, city maps like these served a very different purpose. It’s more than just geography, wouldn't you agree? Editor: I do! I imagine its intention might be more...symbolic. Curator: Exactly. This map serves to communicate power, control, and knowledge, rather than providing purely navigational data. It's propaganda, in a sense, asserting a certain dominion over the territory, for who and by who? Editor: So it was commissioned perhaps to legitimize the person commissioning the map? And did this depiction change the socio-political relationship with this city and the patrons/residents/etc.? Curator: Precisely! Its distribution shapes perception, contributing to how Trier was understood and managed. How does thinking of it as a socio-political object shift your view of the piece? Editor: That gives me a lot to think about... it definitely places it into the political realm! So much more than a simple geographic aid. I'll have to keep my eyes open for similar implications going forward. Curator: Wonderful, paying attention to the context can reveal profound connections to the forces that shape societies and culture.