Allegory of America, from the Four Continents

Art Historical Context

This delicate drawing by Flemish artist Godfried Maes forms part of a series personifying the Four Continents, a popular theme in seventeenth-century European art. Created with pen and gray ink, brush and gray wash over black chalk, the sheet captures America as a dynamic figure surrounded by indigenous attributes—men armed with bows and arrows, vibrant parrots, reptiles such as crocodiles lizards. These elements reflect Europe’s growing fascination with the Americas following exploration and colonization transforming distant lands into emblems of exotic abundance and untamed nature. Maes’s fluid handling of wash and line gives the composition both clarity and movement, allowing the eye to travel from the central figure outward to the lively creatures that define the continent. Such preparatory drawings often served as designs for prints or paintings that decorated palaces and public spaces, helping viewers visualize the wider world within a single allegorical framework. Gifted to the Metropolitan Museum by the estate of James Hazen Hyde, the work remains a vivid reminder of how art shaped early modern understandings of geography and cultural difference.

About the Artist

Godfried Maes · 1649–1700

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