''Allegory of the Planets and Continents'' is a 1752 painting by Italian artist

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Giovanni Battista Tiepolo ( , ; March 5, 1696 – March 27, 1770), also known as Giambattista (or Gianbattista) Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an impo ...

. Done in oil on canvas, the allegorical work uses human figures to represent members of the Greco-Roman pantheon, the

planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

s, and

four continents Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world—Africa in the south, America in the west, Asia in the east, a ...

. The painting is an elaborate oil sketch made by Tiepolo in preparation for rendering a similar, larger version of his scene a massive fresco. Between December 1750 and November 1753, Tiepolo was commissioned to decorate the

Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg The Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg (german: Fürstbistum Würzburg; Hochstift Würzburg) was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire located in Lower Franconia, west of the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg. Würzburg had been a diocese ...

Karl Philipp von Greifenclau zu Vollraths newly constructed palace on the ceiling of a staircase he created a massive fresco of over 600 m², it is considered the largest fresco in the world and is often considered his greatest achievement. The oil on canvas is an earlier version of his work.Watson, F. J. B. "Giovanni Battista Tiepolo: A Masterpiece and a Book." ''Connoisseur'' 136 The intricate painting depicts figures circling around Tiepolo's rendering of

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

, the sun god; this represents planets orbiting the Sun. The

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

of the painting symbolize the continents

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

References

{{Giovanni Battista Tiepolo 1752 paintings Paintings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Paintings in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Paintings of Apollo Angels in art Birds in art Deer in art Elephants in art Horses in art Musical instruments in art Native Americans in art Seashells in art Sun in art