The Four Continents: America

Lorenzo Vaccaro worked in Naples as a painter, sculptor, architect and silversmith. These marble busts show the four continents as female personifications, all adorned with individual headdresses. Europe wears a military helmet, while the bare-breasted figure of America wears a feathered headdress. Both Africa and Asia have flowers and grain intertwined in their hair. In 1692, Vaccaro designed another set of busts of the Four Continents in silver for the Viceroy of Naples, Francesco de Benavides, which were sent to Spain and are now in Toledo Cathedral