It is easy to forget that political boundaries between countries are often arbitrary and changing. This means that
framed large world maps can sometimes be interesting snapshots of a particular time in history, as well as compelling images in their own right. Often the way a map is displayed can reveal the views of those who created the map in unexpected ways, as well as the limitations of portraying the entire surface of a three-dimensional object on a two-dimensional surface.
Probably the most well-known version of a modern political world map is the Mercator projection, which is the basis for most modern examples of
framed large world map images. This includes “Map of the World (Mercator Projection).” However, the Mercator projection is not without its critics. This has led to some alternative approaches, such as the Miller projection, seen in “Political World Map, c.2009 (Miller Projection).”
It is important to remember that even the possibility of accurate world maps is relatively recent in our history. It can be interesting to look at framed large world map pictures from previous times and see how people of those times saw things differently. “Novi Orbis Map” is based on the work of Abraham Ortelius in 1570 and shows what the Dutch colonists of that period thought the Americas looked like, which bears little resemblance to today’s maps.
Although the typical goal of a map is to portray its associated territory as closely as possible, sometimes artists will intentionally create an abstracted version of map. Jasper Johns did exactly this in “Map,” which shows the different states in the United States in different colors, but the boundaries and sometimes even the colors are not distinct.