''The Four Continents'', also known as ''The Four Rivers of Paradise'', is a painting by Flemish artist

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradi ...

, made in the 1610s. It depicts the female personifications of what, at the time, were believed to be

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, ...

(Europe, Asia, Africa and America) sitting with the personifications of their respective major rivers – the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...

, the

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

, the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...

and the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...

. Europe is shown on the left, Africa in the middle, Asia on the right and America behind it, to the left. The tigress, protecting the cubs from the crocodile, is used as a symbol of Asia. The personification of the Danube holds a rudder. The bottom part of the painting shows several

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...

. Painted during a period of truce between the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

and Spain, the river allegories and their female companions in a lush, bountiful setting reflect the conditions that Rubens hoped would return to Antwerp after military hostilities. The art historian Elizabeth McGrath proposed a different interpretation of the female figures on the painting, believing them to be water

nymphs A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ...

representing the sources of the rivers instead.Elizabeth McGrath, “River-Gods, Sources and the Mystery of the Nile: Rubens’s Four Rivers in Vienna,” in ''Die Malerei Antwerpens. Gattungen, Meister, Wirkungen. Internationales Kolloquium, Wien, 1993'', ed. Ekkehard Mai, Karl Schütz, and Hans Vlieghe (Cologne, 1994), 72–82.''Gender, Politics, and Allegory in the Art of Rubens'', p. 250 McGrath also suggested corresponding river names, the

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

instead of the Danube and the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...

instead of the Río de la Plata, arguing that those names also appear as the

rivers of Paradise Rivers of Paradise (also The four Rivers of Paradise) are the four rivers described in Genesis 2:10-14, where an unnamed stream flowing out of Garden of Eden splits into four branches: Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel (Tigris), and Phrath (Euphrates). Th ...

in Christian

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...

. File:Study of a River God - Sir Peter Paul Rubens.png, Study of a river personification for the painting

References

External links

Kunsthistorisches Museum entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Four Continents Paintings by Peter Paul Rubens category:17th-century allegorical paintings category:Allegorical paintings by Flemish artists Nude art 1610s paintings Paintings in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Animals in art Tigers in art Continents in art