Map as Art

I consider mapping an art. For centuries mapmaking was only utilized by artists and cartographers who had the skills to draw intrepretations of the landscape. I know one thing, if I had to freehand my maps I've made, I don't think I would qualify for the minor. I can however, apply artistic visions to my maps in the sense that what I create looks good and is understandable. I like being creative and I admit my artistic sense is limited, but I still have tendencies and organizations of my map that I can consider artisticly influenced. The colors and the layout mean a lot when designing a map and it is really important that audience and the intensity of these aspects are considered. Browsing the web I found an interesting site:
www.rare-maps.com
Here, many historic and rare maps are archived and sold for a moderate price. Though purchases are mainly for collectors, scholars can make use of the maps as we have with the Railway. The image shown is from 1772 and is very artistic and thorough.
They also have a great globe section with different designs and structures that represent a different artistic style and apply other views and ideas for portraying our concepts for this Earth. The globe shown is worth $8,000 and definitely a beautiful piece of material.