Allegory of America, from "The Four Continents"

Adriaen Collaert|Maerten de Vos

1580–1600 · Engraving; second state · Drawings and Prints

This late sixteenth-century engraving made in Antwerp became an emblematic image of the New World. Series representing the "four continents" were a popular conceit during the European age of exploration, when atlases were in high demand. New World themes from other prints—cannibalism, conquest, and a female native—repeat here. Vos’s allegorical figure wears an elaborate feather headdress with a bow and arrow and sits on a giant armadillo, with a parrot nearby. While not the first representation of a feather headdress in New World prints, this may have been one of the most influential.

Artist

Adriaen Collaert|Maerten de Vos

Date

1580–1600

Medium

Engraving; second state

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of the Estate of James Hazen Hyde, 1959