Saudi Arabia Kingdom's Map

ENGRAVED LEATHER MAP
SIZE: 122 CM x 139 CM

The map is a portrait of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Manolo Caminos did reserch in his Braziliam ateliê from books and old maps given to him by the Saudi Braziliam Embassy in 1991.

On the leather, his hand-made tools and well-practiced fire-engraving technique render a surface wich looks like old, sometimes yellowed scroll paper. It's protected against time, wheather and insects with a special and ancient egipcian wax.

The phirograf is an electric burn pencil that is impossible to eraser. Only with fire. Then, no mistakes are required to draw with it.

The artist tryed to show , with marvelously detailed the grandiose Arabian writing; the Muslim inheritance; the tradicional buildings in the Central Province; the Nabataean antiquities at Madain Salih; Makkah, the spiritual capital; Al-Harram Mosque, which embraces the Holy Kaaba; Medina and the Messenger's mosque; the falconry; the ports, oil fields, water holes, etc.

Manolo Caminos usually works in his studio at home in the posh Brazilian peninsula town of Búzios.

He got his start doing decorative map-portraits of islands off the coast of Rio de Janeiro owned by the wealthy. He made them more than geographical renderings. He wove into the landscape of the maps their history and tradition.

His patrons have been rich and royal: King Hussein of Jordan, Lee Rdzwill and Ivo Pitanguy, a renowned Brazilian plastic surgeon who doubles as director of the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro.

For this artist map-gazer, the Arabian prints, the nautical simbols, coats, emblems and symbolism make for an authentic flavor.