The ocean has held enormous fascination for people since time immemorial – as an abundant source of food and source of latent danger for coastal dwellers and as a projection screen for the hopes and fears of those who ventured into the unknown in boats and ships. The seas and oceans play a crucial role in political constellations, the formation of dominions and cultural exchange. As an economic space, they are also very important for the development of societies. And for the last 200 years or so, leisure-seekers have also found respite from everyday life at the seashore.

Over the history of time, artists have recorded the sea with its waves and light, expanses and depths, and inhabitants, ships and shipwrecks in their works. At the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, which is part of the Max Planck Society, Gerhard Wolf and Hannah Baader have been working on this global pictorial history of the sea for a considerable time. The following selection of images provides an insight into their discoveries and findings.

It is the year 1544: the Cosmographia, a six-volume work, in which Sebastian Münster collated the knowledge of his age, is published in Basel. In addition to literary works, its sources include travel reports and narratives by scholars, geographers, cartographers and sailors. The texts are illustrated using numerous maps and images. Despite his serious scientific efforts, Münster cannot avoid spreading nautical yarns – as seen, for example, in this double-page wood cut. The pages that follow contain detailed information about the mythical creatures portrayed in the image and the havoc they can wreak.  Münster‘s portrayal reflects clichés about the dangers lurking in distant seas that were very widespread at the time. Although America had already been discovered 500 years earlier, some elements of society remain captive to the old world view.

Transatlantic travel became common practice in the period from 1570 to 1590. People’s relationship with the sea remained ambivalent, however: its horrors were still very much present, but an awareness of its beauty also emerged. This copper engraving shows a calm sea. The lush green land and sun on the horizon convey a sense of optimism.

Scientific interest in the new world and the oceans surrounding it was also growing at this time. Flora and fauna were discovered and documented. Descriptions by the Italian explorer Girolamo Benzoni, who took part in voyages of discovery to Peru and the West Indies, provide the basis for this image which was created by Belgian engraver Theodor de Bry in 1594. Although the flying fish, which had long been a myth in Europe, are rather out of proportion and the height at which they fly is somewhat exaggerated, the portrayal of their physiognomy is entirely realistic.

The Medici family from Florence became one of Italy’s richest and most powerful dynasties between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. A flourishing textile trade and, later on, the establishment of a modern banking system formed the basis of their wealth.

Following the conquest of the New World, the Medicis quickly realised that if they wished to retain their leading role in world affairs, they would need a presence on the oceans. They built the port of Livorno from 1518 and later on the surrounding city. This view of the port, created by Jacopo Ligozzi in 1604, symbolised both the wealth and power of the Medicis. The stone inlay is exquisite, from the costly blue lapis lazuli, which was imported from Afghanistan, to the very intricate details, some of which are created using pieces of stone that are a mere two millimetres in size. The unusual view of the port from the sea also shows how well protected and busy it was.

Caspar David Friedrich knew all about the terrors of the sea. Born and bred in Baltic city of Greifswald, he was familiar not only with the pleasures of the sea, but also its destructive forces. He painted his work The Sea of Ice in 1823-24. The world had largely been discovered and explored by then and one of the last remaining challenges was the exploration of the North and South Poles.

In 1818-19, British explorer William Edward Parry embarked on a polar expedition that attracted a lot of public interest. It is possible that Caspar David Friedrich was inspired by descriptions of this expedition. Although the British ships returned safe and sound, Friedrich presents a shipwreck in his painting and explores the theme of human impotence in the face of the all-powerful forces of nature.

The invention of the steam engine changed man’s relationship with the sea. In the second half of the nineteenth century the railway network was extended throughout Europe, and people from cities very far away from the sea were able to travel to the coast. The beach became a place of longing for urban dwellers seeking to escape the noise and polluted air of the city.

The artist Gustave Courbet, who grew up in the Jura region and lived in Paris for many years, fled to the sea for other reasons. He was politically active in Paris and constantly came into conflict with the authorities. Thus he retreated to Normandy where he was able to paint in peace and earn good money. In just a few years, he produced around 60 paintings featuring the surf and waves which sold very well. They enabled their buyers to take the sea back to the city with them.

Despite the popularity of beach holidays in the nineteenth century, the prudish morals of the time made it difficult for people to actually bathe in the sea. The idea of seaside tourism originated from England, where the town of Scarborough on the North Sea became the first sea resort when spa waters were discovered there in the 1660s. The fashion for taking holidays by the sea originated there. The use of “bathing machines” began in Scarborough from 1736. These changing rooms on wheels enabled women, in particular, to bathe in the open sea without being seen and causing moral offence. The carts were drawn into the water by horses and parked in such a way that the bathers could alight on the sea side.

The first bathing carts in Germany were used on the island of Norderney and in Travemünde around 1800. However, by the second half of the nineteenth century, swimming baths had emerged and put an end to the era of the bathing cart.

Massimo Sestini won a coveted World Press Photo of the Year award in 2015 for this image of an overcrowded refugee boat off the coast of Libya. The photo is striking for its beauty, however it is also distressing, perhaps for that very reason.

In 2014 alone, the year this photo was taken, 219,000 people fled across the Mediterranean and 3,500 men, woman and children lost their lives on the treacherous journey. The ending for the passengers shown in this photo was a happy one, however: shortly after Massimo Sestini discovered the scene from a helicopter, they were rescued by an Italian frigate.

The certainty of imminent rescue is reflected in the passengers’ faces, and this gives the photo a positive atmosphere despite the drama of the situation. The impact of the image draws on a long history of nautical images, however: the ship traditionally symbolises hope and the departure for a better world, despite all the hazards presented by the sea.