"Four Quarters of the Globe"
Medium
Cotton
Dimensions
L. 53 1/2 x W. 30 1/4 inches 135.9 x 76.8 cm
Classification
Textiles-Printed
Culture
French, Jouy-en-Josas
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1941
Accession Number
41.134
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Created around 1788 at the Oberkampf Manufactory iny-en-Josas,, "Four Qu of the Globe" is finely printed cotton panel designed by Jean-Baptiste Huet I. This textile captures the late-eighteenth-century fascination with global exploration and Enlightenment ideas through allegorical scene representing the four continents—Europe, Asia, Africa, and America—each personified with distinctive attributes and exotic motifs. Huet, celebrated for his graceful figural compositions, brought a refined, neoclassical sensibility to these printed furnishings, transforming utilitarian cloth into visual storytel...