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 considered 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, and four classical virtues.
Europeans were only dimly aware of the Ural Mountains, which today divide Europe and Asia and represent the geological suture between two cratons. Instead, the division between these continents in the European-centered picture was the Hellespont, which neatly separated Europe from Asia. Beyond the Hellespont, Asia began with Asia Minor, where the Roman province of Asia had lain, and stretched away to the Orient.
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 still being updated in the 18th century. The illustrations reveal Eurocentric perceptions of the nature of the "four corners of the world." Ripa's Europe (illustration, left) portrays the continent as a land of abundance. Crowns and the papal tiara lie at the figure's feet.
Africa, by contrast (illustration, below right) shows a woman wearing an elephant headdress who is accompanied by a lion, a scorpion, and Cleopatra's asps. Asia (illustration, right) carries a smoking censer as a camel takes its ease.
The image of America (illustration, below left) shows a Native American maiden in a feathered headdress, with bow and arrow.
American millionaire philanthropist James Hazen Hyde 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 illustrating the Four Continents were shared by various New York City museums.
See also
editExternal links
editReference
edit- 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.
[[Category:Physical geography]]