Allegory of America, from the Four Continents
Godfried Maes Flemish
Not on view
This drawing is one of four designs that Maes executed in preparation for a series of tapestries depicting the motif of the Four Continents—Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. Wearing a feathered headdress and skirt and carrying a quiver full of arrows, the allegorical figure is surrounded by an array of flora and fauna, including a parrot and an alligator, while a small putto with a gold-filled pack smokes a pipe of tobacco—a popular New World export. Although Maes never traveled to the Americas, his imaging of the continent appealed to Baroque tastes for the "exotic" and conformed to the visual conventions invented by European artists to depict the peoples of the New World.
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