{"id":1831161,"date":"2024-05-17T10:21:07","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T14:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1831161"},"modified":"2024-05-17T10:24:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T14:24:25","slug":"new-leventhal-exhibition-heaven-and-earth-the-blue-maps-of-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/05\/new-leventhal-exhibition-heaven-and-earth-the-blue-maps-of-china\/","title":{"rendered":"New Leventhal Exhibition: ‘Heaven and Earth: The Blue Maps of China’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Daqing wannian yitong dili quantu<\/em> (Suzhou, ca. 1820). Map, Prussian blue ink on xuan paper mounted as folding screen, 112\u00d7249 cm. MacLean Collection Map Library, Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A new exhibition at the Boston Public Library\u2019s Leventhal Map Center, Heaven and Earth: The Blue Maps of China<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, focuses on two extraordinary Chinese maps from the early 19th century printed using Prussian blue pigment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

These maps were presented in an extraordinary format, on eight vertical sheets printed in the style of rubbings. Even more strikingly, they were rendered in a rich blue coloring. The pigment Prussian blue had recently begun to be produced in China, and these maps were amongst the first printed objects in East Asia to make use of the colorant\u2014predating the famous use of Prussian blue by Japanese print artists soon after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blue maps were more than just visually astonishing. They also captured Chinese ideas about the relationship between terrestrial and celestial space, and still provide insight today into how Chinese scholars and artists conceptualized the world around them. Beautiful and powerful in equal measure, these blue maps capture details of a transitional moment in the history of China\u2014and the wider world. This exhibition considers these two maps in the context of their production, consumption, and functionality, revealing them as unique objects in the global history of mapmaking.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The online version is full of interesting detail about the maps\u2019 materials and production. The physical exhibition opened last weekend and runs until 31 August 2024. Free admission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new exhibition at the Boston Public Library\u2019s Leventhal Map Center, Heaven and Earth: The Blue Maps of China, focuses on two extraordinary Chinese maps from the early 19th century printed using Prussian blue pigment.… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[144,218,182,50,886],"class_list":["post-1831161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-antique-maps","tag-1800s","tag-bpl","tag-china","tag-exhibitions","tag-leventhal","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1786392,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/10\/new-exhibition-at-the-leventhal-crossing-boundaries\/","url_meta":{"origin":1831161,"position":0},"title":"New Exhibition at the Leventhal: Crossing Boundaries","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"9 October 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"A new exhibition opened at the Leventhal Map Center today: Crossing Boundaries: Art \/\/ Maps \"juxtaposes contemporary works of art with selected maps from the collections of the Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library. These pairings and trios create dialogues that illuminate the crossing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/crossing-boundaries-leventhal-92x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1817986,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2023\/08\/upcoming-leventhal-exhibition-will-explore-boston-transit-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1831161,"position":1},"title":"Upcoming Leventhal Exhibition Will Explore Boston Transit Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 August 2023","format":"link","excerpt":"An upcoming exhibition at the Boston Public Library\u2019s Leventhal Map Center, Getting Around Town: Four Centuries of Mapping Boston in Transit, \u201cbrings together an extraordinary collection of maps, plans, ephemera, and other materials to investigate how Bostonians have moved around the city in the past, present, and future.\u201d Opens September\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Transit"","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1788902,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/06\/bending-lines-an-online-exhibition-from-the-leventhal-center\/","url_meta":{"origin":1831161,"position":2},"title":"Bending Lines, an Online Exhibition from the Leventhal Center","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 June 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Bending Lines: Maps and Data From Distortion to Deception, the latest exhibition from the Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library, is a wide-ranging, comprehensive look at the relationship between maps and the truth. We expect maps not to lie, but maps have misled, propagandized or at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1811478,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2023\/01\/new-boston-focused-map-exhibitions-at-the-leventhal-center\/","url_meta":{"origin":1831161,"position":3},"title":"New Boston-Focused Map Exhibitions at the Leventhal Center","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"13 January 2023","format":"link","excerpt":"Opening today at the Boston Public Library\u2019s Leventhal Map Center, Building Blocks: Boston Stories from Urban Atlases is an exhibition that explores street-level changes to Boston in the period between the Civil War and World War II. Media release. Building Blocks: Boston Stories from Urban Atlases features rare materials from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Atlas of the city of Boston, Roxbury: plate 14 (1931)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/atlas-boston-plate14-roxbury-1024x717.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/atlas-boston-plate14-roxbury-1024x717.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/atlas-boston-plate14-roxbury-1024x717.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/atlas-boston-plate14-roxbury-1024x717.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1787294,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/05\/new-leventhal-exhibition-america-transformed\/","url_meta":{"origin":1831161,"position":4},"title":"New Leventhal Exhibition: America Transformed","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"9 May 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"The Leventhal Map Center's latest exhibition,\u00a0America Transformed: Mapping the 19th Century, opened last Saturday and runs until 10 November 2019. During the 19th century, the United States expanded dramatically westward. Immigrant settlers rapidly spread across the continent and transformed it, often through violent or deceptive means, from ancestral Native lands\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2510,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/08\/mapping-hy-brasil\/","url_meta":{"origin":1831161,"position":5},"title":"Mapping Hy-Brasil","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"3 August 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"An exhibition both online and at the Boston Public Library's Leventhal Map Center through 23 October,\u00a0Hy-Brasil: Mapping a Mythical Island looks at the island that appeared on maps of the Atlantic Ocean over a period of five centuries. \"In this online exhibition of forty maps from the collection at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Abraham Ortelius, \u201cSeptentrionalium Regionum Descrip.,\u201d from Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Antwerp, Belgium, 1570.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/hy-brasil-300x253.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1831161"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1831168,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831161\/revisions\/1831168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1831161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1831161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1831161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}