Allegory of America, from "The Four Continents"

An engraved allegorical figure of America stands in an open landscape beside a palm tree. She raises a round object in one hand and holds a long spear in the other. She wears a feathered headdress, a fringed bodice and skirt, and a cord slung across her shoulder, under a sun breaking through clouds.

Look closer: Small distant buildings sit along the horizon on the left, almost lost in the hatching.

Artist

Abraham Bosse

Date

mid to late 17th century

Medium

Etching

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

2621 × 3734 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Estate of James Hazen Hyde, 1959