Map of China from Toonneel des Aerdrycks

This hand-colored engraved map from Joan Blaeu's Toonneel des Aerdrycks (Theater of the Earth) represents China with decorative cartouches and figures in contemporary dress. The ornamental border figures are rendered in period costume. Maps produced through copper engraving and hand-coloring employed visual conventions that comic illustration would later inherit: exaggeration for legibility, narrative framing, and decorative borders with figural elements. This blend of information and decoration shaped how sequential art would subsequently depict the world.