Allegory of the Continents

The first three images above come from the collaborative engravings database, Virtuelle Kupferstichkabinett. The fourth is from Ruhr-Universität Bochum. The fifth paired sketch images are from Bildinex and the final inkwash painting is from Harvard University.

The main 'Allegory of the Four Continents' series (we are told "1551-1600" but I think it's actually from the early 1590s) was designed by the Flemish painter/artist, Marten de Vos and engraved by Adriaen Collaert. The paired images are the original design drawings. The inkwash drawing, also by Marten de Vos is for a parallel series (I believe the others are online) of continental allegories, all featuring a carriage as the central motif.

"Europe: a three-quarter-length woman with
crown and sceptre, holding the Bible in her hand"

"Asia: a three-quarter-length seated woman with
high turban, holding a book and an incense burner"

"America: a naked three-quarter-length seated
woman holding a bow and a severed human leg"

"Africa: a three-quarter-length seated woman
with bare breasts, girdle and armillary"

This series was published by the London printer John Stafford in 1634. No artist is named and it may well have been Stafford himself, in that the engraving quality is at best fairly mediocre (as was all his own work). From the British Museum.










This last series (sans Asia) was engraved by Phillip (Filips) Galle* who was, incidentally, the father-in-law of Adriaen Collaert, the engraver of the first four images in this post. The Galle series was designed by Marcus Gheeraerts (or Geeraerts). The style suggests to me that it was Gheeraerts the Elder (seen previously in relation to his Fables) and not his son. The date is again simply given as 1551-1600 but I'm fairly sure this, too, was produced in the last decade of the 16th century. The images are also from the Virtuelle Kupferstichkabinett.


In late 16th century Europe, an iconographic genre emerged to give a visual face to the changes in geography and knowledge that flowed from colonial expansionist discoveries. As accounts of the New World reached Europe, artists responded by incorporating symbolic motifs of cannibalism, exotic fauna and stylised natives into their works to evoke a sense of barbarism and danger.

Having four continents in the world suited a certain ordered sensibility, reflecting the four cardinal points, the four classical elements, the four seasons and the four virtues (prudence, fortitude, justice and temperance). And of course, the allegorical depiction of the four continents allowed a spirit of superiority to be rendered with, for example, Europe clutching an orb and sceptre astride the globe (a little difficult to see in the fourth image), taking her rightful place as the abundant and dominant force in the world.

I'm unsure how far this theme - allegorical continents - stretches. It's a difficult subject to pin down in searching. Certainly it appears to have started with the mannerist artists of Northern Europe - the elongated bodies, allegorical motifs and 'busy' scenes - but aspects of the style would play out as emblems on maps, as representations in sculptures and paintings and, for instance, in the newly emerging travel book genre of Theodore de Bry (and others). Variations on the theme seem to have been reinterpreted through both the Baroque and Rococo periods. In any event, the main initial players were Crispin de Passe, Jan van der Straet (Stradanus), Philip Galle, Adriaen Collaert, Jan Sadeler, Marcus Gheeraerts and Marten de Vos (in Marten de Vos's case, I get a strong feeling that his design approach was heavily influenced by his one-time tutor, Frans Floris - see the images posted by misteraitch in 'Cort’s and Floris’s Virtues').

And what would they have done with Australia I wonder? A kangaroo, surely, would be the vehicle rather than alligator or camel. Perhaps there would be handcuffs, surfboard wax, Uluru and a fosters beer can folded into the background?

Nothing I've seen online is worthy of linking, although there are more than a few books about of course that touch on the general subject of continental representation and the evolution of the geo-iconographic forms in early modern history.

Tombs of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta

Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum

Founded in the 11th century as a lay religious order of hospital workers who observed vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in Jerusalem, the Knights of Malta (variously known as: Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem; the Soverign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta; the Order of St John of Jerusalem and similar permutations) were contemporaries with the more military inclined Knights Templar, and provided care to Christian pilgrims.

A 12th century Papal Bull granted these Hospitaller Knights of St John independence, but they were required to provide armed escorts for pilgrims and adopt a more active military role in defending the faith against Muslim attacks. Later that century however, the forces of Saladin captured Jerusalem and the Knights fled, first to the north and then onto the island of Cyprus and eventually, at the beginning of the 14th century, they relocated to the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea.

As part of their continuing duty to defend the faith, the Knights built a formidable naval fleet that cruised the Eastern Mediterranean for more than a century, supporting Crusades into Egypt and Syria and engaging in battles with Barbary pirates and later, Ottoman ships under Suleiman the Magnificent. By this time, the Knights Templar had been absorbed by the Knights of Rhodes and the multinational Order had virtual sovereign status, with their own mint and diplomatic connections to other States.

In 1523, after a continual onslaught by the Ottoman forces, the Order was ejected from Rhodes and in 1530, under a Spanish Crown/Papal edict, were granted the island of Malta as a perpetual fiefdom in exchange for an annual fee of a Maltese falcon (yes, that's where the Dashiell Hammet plot element comes from). Of particular note during their tenure on Malta (in addition to their role as a slave trading hub), the Order, comprising less than 10,000 men under Grand Master Jean de la Valette, managed to withstand a three month seige by 40,000 Ottoman Turks. When it came time to rebuild the damaged cities, the capital was renamed Valetta in honour of their victorious leader.

It should be noted that the tendrils of influence and operation of the Knights of Malta always exceeded their nominal homelands. They had varying holdings across Europe and members of the Order had significant roles in the Russian and pre-Revolutionary French navies as well as a presence in Caribbean affairs. The greatest blow to their organisation occurred in 1798 with the invasion and occupation by the forces of Napoleon who used Malta as a launching pad for an assault on Egypt. There followed an ejection of the Knights who were effectively dispersed and their headquarters was moved around Italy until in 1834, the current sovereign-state location was established in Palazzo Malta in Rome.

Today, the 12,000 (invite only) members and volunteers of the charitable religious Order engage in humanitarian and medical relief work in more than 100 countries. Only vestiges of the military tradition (without function) remain. The head of the Order is the 78° Prince and Grand Master Fra' Andrew Bertie, elected in 1988 for life by the Council Complete of State. He is the first British subject to have been made Grand Master of the Order.

The honorific watercolour/ink/inkwash album featured above was produced in 1781 by Le Bailli de Froullay and Fr. Ludovicus d'Almeyda with the Greek notations by a certain Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It is entitled: 'Mausolées des Grans Maîtres de l'Ordre de S. Jean de Jerusalem qui etoitent en Rhodes, tirés des dessins originaux qui existent dans la chancelerie de l'Ordre à Malthe' and is available in html or flash format from La Bibliothèque Méjanes in Aix-en-Provence.

• All of the above images are spliced from screencaps and were uploaded (with a few more illustrations not seen) to this Webshots album. [The image quality is a little strange in that it appears just slightly blurry which is not overcome with the flash zoom. It's similar to the appearance of images from the same digitising company seen previously with 'La Très Sainte Trinosophie'. Basic image sharpening introduced digital artifact so I've essentially left the pictures alone, save for spot cleaning them all]
  
• The Soverign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta offical website (multlingual).
  
• Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem at New Advent.
• Wikipedia: List of Grand Masters (I could identify a few names from the latinized versions in the sketches); Knights Hospitaller.

The British Museum Print Database

"Satire around the four numbers of the year
'1690', each representing a continent at war"

"Set of twelve horizontal compositions of comic
figures with large heads and small bodies, engaged in
different group activities" 1686 (After Pietro de Rossi)

'Machina del Mondo, ogn'un cerca di star sopra il compagno'

"A pyramid of ten persons climbing on top of each other,
the poor at the bottom, the king at the top; Death appears to
take them all" - "Titled along the top and with ten
numbered identifications of the persons in the pyramid
and with Death stating 'Et io tutti pareggio'" 1675-1710

'Bugia peste e cagion d'ogni gran male'

"Allegorical figure of Lying, a woman with one leg
and her dress covered with masks" 1680-1710

[addit: this text is obviously wrong - the Museum staff have changed it but the correct title won't appear until the site is refreshed in a week]

'Caccia Giocosa invenzioni di Gioseffo Maria Mitelli pittore Bolognese,
da lui effettivamente sperimentate, e dedicate a chi si diletta della caccia'

"'Playful Hunt', consisting of title-page and sheet of explanation in letterpress,
plus fifteen numbered plates showing absurd ways to hunt birds; second edition
(Bologna, nella stamperia di Lelio della Volpe, 1745) of a series first published in 1684"

'Genio: Laborem ocio, ocium labore variat'

"Statue of Genius, surrounded by children
devoting themselves to various pastimes" 1691

'Il bilanzino giustissimo con due figure d'oro'

"A Spanish and French soldier weighed in a balance,
with the Frenchman emerging on top" 1692

'Il corrier che mai si ferma, si corre per le poste e non si burla'

"Two figures on horseback, the traveller led by Time as the courier,
ride towards the pit that death has dug before him" 1691

'La quaresima saggia'
"Masked dancer playing a guitar representing Carnival" 1680-1710

'Mira qui come va senza ritengo la cecitade humana al cieco regno'
"Series of three plates with a procession of blind-folded humans,
representing the seven deadly sins, being led to death by devils" 1679

'Quale di questi tre e più intricato?'
"Three trios, of foxes with a hen, of money-lenders
with a victim, and cats with a mouse" 1675-1710

'Se conoscer mi voi mi scoprirai'
A beautiful woman playing a guitar; a flap
lifts to reveal a skulll beneath the head. 1698
[note: I removed the flap - it was just a blank piece
off the top of the print the way they photographed it]

'Secreto sicurissimo per non mai morire'
"Death as a skeleton attacks with his
scythe a man in bed who blows at him" 1706

'Semo quattro fantolini della mamma e del papà'
"Titled along the bottom; the four types are identified
as 'Messier Papa e Tace', 'Messier Contemplativo',
'Messier Alto e Basso' and 'Messier Puzzolente'" 1680-1710

'Va tutto in fuga: Globi di fumo son titoli e vanti: Fumo e Cenere'
"A large chimney-piece with a fire at the base, up which
people climb, but at the chimney at the top emerge
only broken shreds of their power and authority" 1700

{puzzle-picture}
Rebus in nine lines with religious and moral texts designed
to be cut out and pasted onto one side of a fan. 1693

One of the most significant cultural collections of 2-dimensional art (prints, drawings and paintings) in the world made its relatively silent debut online recently. The British Museum has spent more than 15 years gearing up for this moment.

In my opinion this is the equivalent of the commencement of NYPL or the Library of Congress online. Seriously, this is a vast treasure trove and once you've spent any time there you'll never bother returning to poor old BibliOdyssey.

The advanced search page is the best place to start (and bookmark) [there appears to be no real home page as such]. The size of the database is enormous. There are more than 13,000 satirical prints for instance. A free text search on 'London' produces a similar number. There are over one thousand prints by Albrecht Dürer. 'Ornament' returns more than three thousand images. Although the image sizes vary, most are at least close to screen size and there is no watermarking. [See the Guardian Arts article]

--------------------------------------------

Rather than go wandering aimlessly around with my mouth agog, poaching images left, right and centre, I thought I would take a sampling from the Italian graphic artist, Giuseppe Maria Mitelli (1634-1718) whose novel etchings were first introduced to me by a series of posts made by the esteemed (and now retired) custodian of Giornale Nuovo, Mr H.

To save playing the role of mere regurgitator, go and see the posts Giuseppe Maria Mitelli; More Mitelli and Mitelli's Games for further information about the artist and to see some other examples of his eclectic works. [There are some additional Mitelli alphabet images scattered across a few other posts at Giornale Nuovo]. I'll just be resting in the corner while you're gone.

Mineral Conchology of Great Britain

The son of a lapidary, James Sowerby (1757-1822) studied art at the Royal Academy and came to be the patriarch over a family line of naturalist illustrators.

Sowerby obtained employment with the botanist William Curtis and contributed plates and hand colouring to 'The Botanical Magazine' and 'Flora Londinensis'. In 1790 he commenced the first of what would become a series of monumental projects with the production of some 2,500 plates over more than twenty years for Sir James Smith's 36 volume, 'English Botany'. By the end of the 18th century Sowerby was regarded as the leading British illustrator of botanical specimens.

Beyond plants, Sowerby applied his talents most significantly to extensive works on geology, mineralogy, mycology and, as with the fossil illustrations seen above, invertebrate palaeontology. [He also produced an innovative treatise on colour theory*]

There had been a rumour that much of Sowerby's hand-coloured engraving output was achieved with a production line. The story went that one of his three illustrator sons would apply a colour to the printed image and pass it over to his sibling for the next colour. They all did contribute to the publishing enterprises, each according to his abilities and age, but surviving records indicate that Sowerby laid down the background and left instructions for colourists, rather than there being a systematic approach in the workshop. Because many of Sowerby's publications were large multi-volume sets, the children (and other family members) became especially important in ensuring the later instalments were published after their father's death.

'Mineral Conchology of Great Britain, or Coloured Figures and Descriptions of those Remains of Testaceous Animals, or Shells which have been Preserved at Various Times, and Depths in the Earth' was issued in seven volumes between 1812 and 1846 which are online at the consistently wonderful University of Strasbourg. There are some 650 plates in the series and the above sampling was taken from across the volumes - all of the posted images (plus some more) were uploaded to this Webshots album.

• James Sowerby: His Publications and Collections.
• Wikipedia have a reasonably comprehensive article.
• Notes in relation to 'A New Elucidation of Colours, Original Prismatic and Material: Showing Their Concordance in the Three Primitives'.