THE PARTS OF THE WORLD

Allegory of America, 1658

Allegory of Africa, 1658

Pier Francesco Mola. (Coldrerio 1612 – Roma 1666)

The allegories of America and Africa painted in the centres of the vaults of the two camerini represent the only surviving evidence of Mola’s work in the palace of Valmontone.

The execution of both frescoes is documented by payments received by the artist at the end of 1658 and, in the case of America, by two preparatory drawings kept in the Ambrosian Library in Milan (signed) and the Prado Museum in Madrid.

The representations of the continents are immersed in a landscape setting with sloping planes in the background that reflect the artist’s mature style and correspond to the indications provided by Cesare Ripa in his Iconology. America is described as a ‘naked woman […] with a striped veil of many colours falling from one shoulder across her body, covering her shameful parts. […] In her left hand she holds a bow, in her right hand an arrow, and at her side a quiver likewise full of arrows […]’. Ripa also suggests including a human head pierced by an arrow at the foot of the allegory, an attribute which we find in the drawing at the Ambrosian Library, but which Mola preferred to avoid in the final version of the work.

Africa, a dark-haired woman, is also accompanied by her traditional attributes: the lion and the basket of wheat placed on the ground. The lion and the small snake slithering in the left corner, as well as the wheat, are the distinctive elements that distinguished this part of the world at the time.