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.