Jean-Frédéric Waldeck

Jean Frédéric Maximilien de Waldeck ( born March 16, 1766 Prague, † April 30, 1875 in Paris) was a French antiquarian, cartographer, painter and explorer, who held the first European artist, the buildings of classical Mayan culture in pictures.

Life

Waldeck was a colorful figure: he claimed alternately to be a duke, earl or baron, gave as the birthplace of Prague, Paris and Vienna as well as the home country of Germany, Austria and the UK. Among other things, he called himself the meantime Johann Friedrich Graf von Waldeck.

Waldeck studied art in Paris, accompanied by its own unverifiable information Napoleon on his Egyptian expedition and undertook research trips to South Africa, Chile, Guatemala and Mexico. He painted watercolors of local art monuments. In 1825 he was hired by a British silver mining company in Mexico as engineer. After leaving that post, he researched and documented the pre-Columbian ruins in the country, including Palenque, where he stayed for two years, and Uxmal.

His 1838 book published Voyage pittoresque et archeologique dans la province d' Yucatan pendant les années 1834 et 1836 was the first description of the Mayan ruins in word and image, the romanticized images are not very accurate. The book made ​​a great impression on the American explorer John Lloyd Stephens, who until 1841 was the pioneer of the modern Maya Exploration 1839.

Waldeck published until his hundredth birthday numerous lithographs of his discoveries. He was active until his death at the age of supposedly 109 years. He is said to have suffered a heart attack after he had looked up a pretty young woman in Paris.