Personification of America

While ancient people noted differences in skin color between groups, skin color as a primary marker of power and difference is a product of modern European colonialism. European artists played a significant role in forging these distinctions. Rosalba Carriera was an elite Venetian artist well-known for her work in pastel, which yielded a matte surface ideal for depicting sensuous textures such as textiles and skin. Previously, the “four continents” genre – visually allegorizing Asia, Africa, Europe, and America as women – primarily relied on symbolic dress and props to differentiate the figures. In contrast, Carriera primarily relied on skin color. This depiction of “America” shows the stereotypical European imagination of Native peoples, including feathers and a quiverful of arrows, as well as a medium skin tone.

Bust length portrait of a woman, her left breast exposed, and carrying a spear in her right hand. In her hair is a jeweled fillet, trimmed with feathers, and in her right ear she wears a lozenge-shaped jeweled pendant earring. On her back she carries a quiver of arrows. Her head is inclined slightly to the left and turned directly toward the viewer.