Four Continents / The Triumph of the Catholic Church
Author: Unknown
Origin: Unknown
Dating: 18th century
Material: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions (cm): 136,5 x 183
Inv. no.: PD0484
This allegoric painting represents the four Continents resorting to four women. The chromatic palette is diverse and the light falls mainly on the woman who represents Europe, the central character, who draws ones attention.
For centuries, Europe was the “centre” of the world. The Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French and English controlled the seas and all of the trade goods converged into Europe. At the time, the largest cities in the world were Lisbon, Seville, Cadiz, Venice, Genoa, Antwerp, Amsterdam and London. On the streets, one could “inhale” the African gold, the American silver and exotic woods, the Indian spices and the oriental tea and porcelains.
This canvas clearly depicts the era of European Imperialism. Europe is shown as extremely well dressed, with a building on under a hand – representing the power of the Church – and a fruit on the other – symbolising wealth and prosperity.
With a golden skin tone, Asia seems to be carrying pearls, gold and its mystical scents represented through incense.
The woman representing the Americas, is depicted with feathers from exotic birds on her head and with a quiver full of arrows, as if an Amazon.
With a darker skin, Africa appears with a turban shaped as an elephant head and, on the left hand, with a scorpion.
All are depicted as if bringing their riches to Europe…
“Flora in the Palace’s Collections”
«In the painting representing the Four Continents […], an example of a popular visual iconography in the Baroque period, the prominent figure of Europe, crowned, embracing with her right arm a model of a church, and with the symbolic fruits of the Holy Trinity and the Eucharistic blood at her feet, is the allegorical demonstration where “the most perfect and true religion is centered, superior to any other”, as described in the Iconology of the Italian humanist Cesare Ripa (ca. 1555-1622). Europe’s gaze is directed towards the Orient, from where she inspires the fragrant scent of a smoking thurible, which the allegorical figure of Asia holds in her hands. Exhibiting all the luxury of Persia or India, Asia displays her hair loose, crowned with roses and with her exposed skin adorned with precious stones, gold and pearls, attributes of “this most fortunate part of the world”, still in the words o Cesare Ripa (RIPA, 2007).
The smoke of the thurible comes from a resin known as frankincense or olibanum. It was […] the most expensive product imported in Ancient Egypt, and this aromatic resin or “sweat of the gods” as the Egyptians called it, is harvested from trees of the genus Boswellia, native to a narrow strip that extends from the Horn of Africa to India and southern China.
The olibanum [or frankincense] trade flourished for centuries. The finest and most valuable came from Boswellia sacra which grew in Oman, in the Dhofar mountains, from where hundreds of camel caravans transported the olibanum, across the Arabian desert, destined for the Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek and Roman empires.
Beyond its fragrant qualities, olibanum was used as a treatment for a wide variety of ailments, through its edible resin and tisanes. However, it was its use during purification rites, through the smoke it exhaled when burned, that granted it a sacred dimension.»
Sasha Assis Lima
