From 20 December, 1979 to 1 March, 1980 in the Royal Picture Gallery the Nauritshuis there was an exhibition devoted to Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen (1604 – 1679). This learned officer was from 1636 to 1644 Governor of that part of Brazil conquered by the Dutch West India Company. Among his entourage were two painters, Frans Post and Albert Eckhout, as well as the Doctor Willera Piso and the German naturalist Georg Markgraf. During their stay in the colony the artists depicted the flora, fauna and people of the colony, while the scientists researched and classified the natural world. Johan Maurits made a collection of naturalia and artificiaiia in his palace Vrijburg in Recife, had an Observatory built there and laid out a zoological garden. This artistic and scientific reconnaissance of Brazil was the main theme of the exhibition.