Prospect der Stadt Masulipatam in Ost-Indien

1672

Copper engraving on paper

Print size: 8.25 x 13.25 in (21 x 33.5 cm)
Sheet size: 9.75 x 15 in (24.5 x 38 cm)

Masulipatam (Machilipatnam) — a Dutch Golden Age prospect of a Coromandel port, 1672

This finely engraved prospect depicts Masulipatam, one of the principal ports of the Coromandel Coast during the seventeenth century and a key hub in the Indian Ocean textile trade. Published in Amsterdam in 1672 as part of Philippus Baldaeus’ influential description of Asia, the view belongs to the canon of Dutch Golden Age travel imagery that shaped European understanding of South Indian maritime cities.

The composition presents the port from an elevated vantage, allowing the fortified town, shoreline, and roadstead to be comprehended as a single commercial system. The walled settlement stretches along the coast, animated by shipping offshore and by activity within the harbour precincts. In the foreground, a carefully staged group of figures—Indian merchants, attendants, and travellers, alongside an elephant and mounted figures—introduces a narrative element typical of Dutch prospects of the period, blending ethnographic observation with symbolic display of wealth and authority.

Historically, Masulipatam functioned as the principal outlet of the Golconda Sultanate, famed for its export of finely woven cotton textiles that supplied markets across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. By the mid-seventeenth century it hosted competing Dutch and English trading interests, making it a focal point of early modern mercantile rivalry. Baldaeus’ prospect emphasises scale, accessibility, and prosperity rather than military dominance, reflecting the city’s role as a commercial entrepôt.

Valued today for its rarity and visual richness, this engraving stands as a foundational document in the pictorial history of the Coromandel Coast and an enduring testament to the Dutch Republic’s global commercial imagination.

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