Women in art: Goddesses or metaphors?

 Women in art: Goddesses or metaphors?

    Women have long been used as a symbol of purity and the unexplored, but sometimes they are used in an exploitative sense. They would represent many facets of that society at the time, mostly used in a derogatory way. The European artists of the Renaissance would have also viewed the world through allegorical figures. They would have mostly been inspired by ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman personifications, which were predominantly female figures that were arranged in rivers, oceans, regions, continents, and even the cosmos. At first, the early continents only comprised Europe, Asia, and Africa; eventually, the Europeans discovered the Americas in 1492, which would be included in the allegorical representation of the continents. In addition to transitory works created for triumphal entry and pageants, the personification of the continents as feminine allegorical characters is a tradition seen in maps, coins, engravings, and decorative arts. The characteristics of the allegories were established in 1593 in Iconologia by the Italian humanist Cesare Ripa and augmented by current trip accounts. These allegorical images combine a sexualized young woman to express virginity with symbols and traits connected with each continent, such as commodities to be exchanged and resources to be exploited. Inconologia has been the main inspiration for many artists since its inception. These pieces that I have curated depict women as symbolic representations of the continents above, in chronological order.

Terracotta oinochoe (jug), Classical period,  mid-4th century BCE, Greek, Attic

Medium: Terracotta; red-figure

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Accession Number: 25.190

We see here an early inspiration of women being used as an allegory. A Greek terracotta jug depicting Pompe, the female personification of a procession, the winged Eros, and the god Dionysus. The narrative presented shows that the figures are getting ready for an ​​Athenian festival in honor of Dionysos where the Procession, this being Pompe, wherein two are bound in the marriage of the god to the wife of the archon basileus, a high official representing the ancient Athenian kings. Pompe is the procession, the offering. Pompe’s pose invokes the statues of Aphrodite, further exemplifying her status as an allegorical figure. 

Allegory of Africa, from "The Four Continents"

ca. 1590–1600 

Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (Flemish, Bruges ca. 1520–ca. 1590 London (?) (active England))

Medium: Engraving

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Accession Number: 59.654.52

Allegory of Africa is part of a series of engravings of the four continents after drawings by Gheeraerts.  European artists from the Renaissance represented the known world through allegorical figures derived from antiquity. It wasn’t until the representations were eventually standardized in the Iconologia by the Italian Cesare Ripa. In his representations of the Continents, Gheeraerts surrounded the allegories with sexualized young women and with the symbols and attributes that the artists and the viewers associated with each continent. These attributes would be traded resources and exploitation. These images are steeped in white Christian and male Eurocentrism, reinforcing ideas of the self and the other that characterized the era. In this engraving, Africa is shown as a naked woman wearing a feather headdress and carrying a bundle of branches. She is surrounded by horns of plenty and palm trees that together signify the continent’s agrarian riches. The figure of Africa is flanked by a lion and an elephant, while above her sits a chameleon that alludes to Africa’s tropical climate. 

Asia and Africa

ca. 1752

Vincennes Manufactory (French, ca. 1740–1756)

Medium: Soft-paste porcelain

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Accession Number: 2012.507

Asia and Africa is one of a relatively small number of glazed porcelain figure groups produced at the Vincennes factory in the years between 1750 and 1752. We see the allegorical representation of both Asia and Africa. The porcelain figures are surrounded by symbols of their respective country such as a lion representing African wildlife,  a shield with a camel engraved on it, an incense urn representing Asian culture, and sculpted in vegetation once again invoking the Asian commerce of what is presumably tea.

Allegorical Figure Representing Asia

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italian, Venice 1727–1804 Venice)

Medium: Fresco, transferred to canvas

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Accession Number: 43.85.17

This piece is part of a set that Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo created for overdoors. Here he depicts the continent of Asia. He uses Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia to base his figure of Asia on symbols provided by Iconologia.  The 2 symbols he includes are the palm branch and the camel. These attributes were important signifiers for historical audiences.  The figure is the allegorical representation of what Asia is supposed like. She is dressed in long garments and sandals to represent the hot and arid environment and at her side is a camel and she holds in her hand a palm branch. 

Allegorical Figure Representing America

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italian, Venice 1727–1804 Venice)

Medium: Fresco, transferred to canvas

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Accession Number: 43.85.20

This piece is part of the same set as the one above. Here, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo depicts the continent of America. He once again uses Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia to add distinct symbols such as a feathered headdress and crocodile. The figure is topless but wearing a skirt made out of some sort of vegetation. She holds in one arm a bundle of reeds and in the other she wields a tool. These attributes were important signals to historical audiences, however, this would eventually lead to racialized stereotypes.