Allegory of Africa, from the Four Continents 1732

Johann Justin Preissler created this print, "Allegory of Africa," as part of a series called "The Four Continents." Made in the 18th century, the image employs a common European artistic trope: the use of allegory to personify continents. Here, Africa is represented by a light-skinned woman with a headdress of bull horns, accompanied by a lion, a palm tree, and snakes. The visual codes reflect European fantasies and limited understandings of the continent and its people. It is important to remember the cultural and institutional context of this image. Preissler worked within a European tradition of representing the world. Prints like this circulated within a society that was actively engaged in colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. It served to reinforce a sense of European dominance and control. To fully understand this print, we can investigate European colonial history, the history of cartography and printmaking, and the social function of allegory in the 18th century. We discover how art is always entangled with the power structures of its time.