# Allegorical Groups Representing the Four Continents: Africa [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BERTOS, Francesco]() - Date: 1701-1750 - Technique: Bronze, height 64 cm ## Commentary Francesco Bertos created a considerable number of complicated pyramidal groups in a very distinctive, ingenious style that mirrors the lightness and airiness of contemporary Rococo painting in France. Four groups in the Walters Art Museum are allegories of the four continents, of which the world was then thought to consist. All have their names engraved. In the allegory of Africa, the continent is depicted by people who, in a simple, peaceful way of life, gather grain from the fertile ground. A lion and a snake indicate the African continent. ## Related artworks - [Allegorical Groups Representing the Four Continents: America]() - [Allegorical Groups Representing the Four Continents: Asia]() - [Allegorical Groups Representing the Four Continents: Europe]() - [An Allegory of Triumph]() - [Group of Eleven Figures \(Allegory of Autumn\)]() - [Humility and Faith]() - [Massacre of the Innocents]() - [St Francis Xavier and St Ignatius Loyola]() - [St Francis Xavier \(detail\)]() - [St Ignatius Loyola \(detail\)]() - [Vessel with three putti]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()