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Africa,
18th century
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Special Exhibition
<p>The symbolic attributes of the <em>Four Continents</em> follow Cesare Ripa's <em>Iconologia</em> (1593), the most influential iconographic dictionary of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Because of its warm climate and European beliefs that the continent had sparse resources <em>Africa</em> is depicted wearing a turban but with little clothing. She is attended by a lion and elephant, and among the <em>Continents</em> she is the <br>only one with non-European facial features.</p>
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18th century