Nicolas de Fer: The Artist Behind Quantity Over Accuracy Nicolas de Fer (1646 – 1720), a French cartographer and engraver, occupies a peculiar place in the annals of early modern art history. Unlike his contemporaries who meticulously documented the world with painstaking precision—think Copernicus charting planetary orbits or Cassini observing Saturn’s rings—Fer prioritized artistic expression over geographical accuracy. His atlases and engravings, though undeniably impressive in their visual splendor, are riddled with errors that reveal a fascinating paradox: they strive for grandeur and b…