Allegory of Europe, from "The Four Continents"

A crowned woman in a long, cloaked robe stands on a rise, holding a scepter high in her right hand and a bundle of cloth in her left. A rock, a small plant and a distant walled town with towers sit beside her under a sky of clouds. Fine etched lines model the drapery and landscape; an inscription in French runs along the bottom margin.

Look closer: A small engraver's credit, 'Le Blond gravé avec privilege du Roy', sits in the lower right corner beside the publisher's name.

Artist

Abraham Bosse

Date

mid to late 17th century

Medium

Etching

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

2556 × 3728 px

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