Europeans in the 1500s divided the world into four continents:
During this time, nothing was known of Antarctica or Australia, the other two land masses which we consider continents today. Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world—Europe in the north, Asia in the east, Africa in the south, and America in the west. This division fit the Renaissance sensibilities of the time, which also divided the world into four seasons, four classical elements, four cardinal directions, four classical virtues, etc.
In 1603, Cesare Ripa published a book of emblems for the use of artists and artisans who might be called upon to depict allegorical figures. He covered an astonishingly wide variety of fields, and his work was reprinted many times. It was still being brought up-to-date in the 18th century. The illustrations reveal fixed Eurocentric perceptions of the nature of the "four corners of the world." Ripa's Europe (illustration, left) is the land of abundance (cornucopia) of kings and the pope, whose crowns and the papal tiara lie at her feet, and of cities.
Africa, by contrast (illustration, below right) wears the elephant headdress (worn by rulers depicted on Hellenistic Bactrian coins) and is accompanied by a lion, the scorpion of the desert sands and Cleopatra's asps. Asia (illustration, right), the seat of Religion, carries a smoking censer as a camel takes its ease.
And the iconic image of America (illustration, below left) shows a Native American maiden in a feathered headdress, with bow and arrow. Perhaps she represents a fabled Amazon from the river that already carried the name.
The American millionaire philanthropist James Hazen Hyde , who inherited a majority share in Equitable Life Assurance Society formed a collection of allegorical prints illustrating the Four Continents that are now at the New-York Historical Society; Hyde's drawings and a supporting collection of sets of porcelain table ornaments and other decorative arts were shared by various New York City museums.
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Reference
- Honour, Hugh, The New Golden Land: European Images of America from the Discoveries to the Present Time. New York: Pantheon Books, 1975. An exhibition based on the book's premise was curated by Honour at the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975-77.
