Allegory of America, from New Inventions of Modern Times (Nova Reperta), plate 1 of 19

Theodoor Galle Netherlandish
 After Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus Netherlandish
 Publisher Philips Galle Netherlandish

Not on view


A century after the publication of Amerigo Vespucci’s widely read travelogue New World (Mundus Novus, 1503), Stradanus designed a print series to celebrate the scientific, military, and commercial gains of European exploration and conquest. In this engraving—the most famous of the series—Vespucci holds a Christian banner in one hand and a navigational device in the other. The Italian explorer awakens America, personified as a Native woman wearing only a feather cap, belt, and jeweled anklets, his "discovery" presented as a sexualized encounter. In the distance, nude figures engage in an act of cannibalism—a sensational event written about but never witnessed by Vespucci. Printed images such as this one disseminated misconceptions about Native peoples of the Americas and worked to justify European desires for conquest and colonization.

Allegory of America, from New Inventions of Modern Times (Nova Reperta), plate 1 of 19, Theodoor Galle (Netherlandish, Antwerp 1571–1633 Antwerp), Engraving

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