Allegory of Africa, from "The Four Continents"
mid to late 17th century
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet (trimmed): 8 7/16 × 5 5/8 in. (21.5 × 14.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of the Estate of James Hazen Hyde, 1959
Accession Number
59.654.47
Tags
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints collection, where you'll find *Allegory of Africa, "The Four Continents*, a delicate etching created in the mid- to late 17th by French artists Abraham Bosse and Jean Leblond. Bosse, a master printmaker known for his precise line work and contributions to the early Baroque style, collaborated here on this small-scale sheet (8 7/16 × 5 5/8 in.), gifted from the Estate of James Hazen Hyde in 1959. This print is part of a popular European series personifying the four continents as allegorical female figures, reflecting the era's exp...
About the Artist
Abraham Bosse|Jean I Leblond · 1602–1676
Abraham Bosse (1604–1676) was a French printmaker and theorist whose approximately 1,600 etchings provide an unparalleled visual record of 17th-century French life. Born to Huguenot parents in Tours, he trained in Paris under Melchior Tavernier and became a devoted follower of Jacques Callot's technical innovations. Bosse's meticulous etchings depicted subjects ranging from daily life and fashion ...