Thursday, January 22, 2009

Batavia Journal

VOC warship, whale & trident


eccentric sketches of indigenous Asian people


Chinese man & woman in costume and knight in armor


17th century musician trio from India


2 natives with severed head


cannibal natives cooking human



mermaid, squid and toothed cat


whale sketch


snakes and frog drawing


frilled lizard and zebra


bat and snake


bat with tail and canine


eccentric dog-fish, porcupine & black bird


cassowary, ostrich & pelican sketches


cockatoo, penguin, parrot & long-beaked bird





rambutan & melon-like tropical fruit


drawing of coconut tree & coconut


papaya tree and cut papaya fruit


red, yellow & green chilli pods & bamboo plant


windmill, military & musical instrument coat of arms


☼☼ Click through any picture for a greatly enlarged version. All the images have been extensively background cleaned according to the "less is more" and "when in doubt, don't" philosophies of restoration. ☼☼


These extraordinary illustrations come from one of two journals kept by a German recruit to the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Jörg Franz Müller was a gunsmith from Alsace who enlisted as a midshipman aboard VOC vessels that sailed between Europe and Batavia [in Indonesia] from 1669 to 1682.

The imaginative renderings of peoples, animals and plants from Asia and Africa make up for their lack of strict accuracy with an endearing naive style. It's likely that Müller had at least seen (if not attempted to reproduce drawings remembered from) some earlier natural history works containing fanciful creatures. Although there is little around in english online about this work, there is mention of Müller being aboard vessels taking exotic creatures in cages back to Holland, so he definitely had access to specimens.

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