Cimebebas and Caffaria from Catembela to the Cape of Good Hope: Cimebebas et Caffariae Littora a Catenbela ad Promontorium Bonae Spei Pascaerte................

A highly decorative sea chart of the southwest coast of Africa including the Cape of Good Hope.
This sea-chart was first published in De Wit's Orbis Maritmus ofte Zee Atlas of 1675 and also appeared in later editions.
De Wit's sea charts from this atlas are sought after for their geographical content as well as their attractive cartouches and vignettes.
A large title cartouche dominates the top of the chart. This cartouche shows lions, leopards, and other African animals. The left of the cartouche shows a group of Europeans negotiating with Africans; figures of Africans are also shown. The bottom right vignette has Neptune and a female figure surrounded by cherubs and drawn by three horses. Several sea battles are also depicted.
The copperplate for this sea chart was acquired by Louis Renard in the early 1700s. The imprint was changed from De Wit to that of Renard.

What makes this map very special is that it was probably colored by the master colorist Dirk Jansz van Santen (1637/38-1708). In the seventeenth century, the Netherlands held a prominent position in Europe in the production of books, maps and prints. Not only were the number, diversity and quality of printed works renown, but also the "versiering" - the application of decorative graphic elements in the coloring of maps, prints, title pages, opening and closing vignettes, etc.
Little is known about the many print and map colorists, the 'consten caertafzetters', who lived in the Netherlands at the time. Since their work was usually not signed, they have remained anonymous. The most important exception to this rule is Dirk Jansz van Santen.

Atlases and books colored by Van Santen figured among the showpieces of the most prominent collections, such as that of the Amsterdam burgomaster Nicolaas Witsen (1641-1717) or of Laurens van der Hem (1621-1678), a wealthy Amsterdam lawyer. Bibles and atlases, bound in deluxe bindings by Albert Magnus (16421689) and decorated by Van Santen were considered gifts worthy of princes. Travellers and poets wrote about his work.
There is a reference to him in the travel account of Zacharias Konrad von Uffenbach, Merkwürdige Reisen... (Ulm, 1750-54). Von Uffenbach was the burgomaster of Frankfurt and an art collector who left a record of his visit to Amsterdam in 1711 which makes it clear that collectors competed with each other to obtain the best of what Van Santen had made.

This chart is lavishly colored using gold for the cartouches and further embellishments and major cities. The scale of longitude and latitude in variations of red, blue-green, alternating with gold for a lively effect.
The figures around the figure of Neptune at the bottom right are painted in a somewhat impressionistic way that is characteristic of Van Santen with many dark shadow areas to highlight the colors.
More about the Dutch master colorist Dirk Jansz van Santen. [+]

Reference: Norwich Map #254 for the Renard sea chart. Tooley [under De Witt], p. 124. Z.K. von Uffenbach, Merkwüdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen, Holland und Engelland, 3 vols., Ulm 1750-1754, vol. 3, pp. 600-606. Goedings, Truusje, Dirk Jansz van Santen: