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Object Timeline

1960

  • We acquired this object.

2005

2012

2025

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Figure of Africa Panel

This is a Panel. It was after Marten de Vos and Julius Goltzius. It is dated late 17th–early 18th century and we acquired it in 1960. Its medium is fruitwood. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

[label copy for four panels 1960-1-15a/d]
Panels with allegories of the Four Continents
After engravings by Julius Goltzius (active 1575-after 1595)
based on a drawing by Marten de Vos (1532-1603)
Eger, Bohemia, late 17th or early 18th century
Wood
Gift of the estate of James Hazen Hyde, 1960-1-15-c/d

Cabinet makers in Eger, Germany (Bohemia), in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries produced ornamental furniture decorated with relief pictorial intarsias. These decorative panels were either displayed independently on the wall, like paintings, or incorporated as drawer fronts in cabinets, caskets, boxes, or game boards. Allegorical subjects such as the Four Seasons, the Four Elements, the Virtues, and, as seen in this example, the Four Continents were popular in this period of Baroque humanism.

This object was donated by Estate of James Hazen Hyde. It is credited Gift of the Estate of James Hazen Hyde.

  • Sidewall
  • leather, stamped, embossed, silvered, varnished.
  • Museum purchase through gift of Thomas Snell.
  • 1903-21-3
  • Sidewall (Holland)
  • leather, stamped, silvered, painted.
  • Gift of Eleanor Garnier Hewitt.
  • 1903-12-18

Its dimensions are

H x W x D: 47.6 x 32.3 x 3.3 cm (18 3/4 x 12 11/16 x 1 5/16 in.)

Cite this object as

Figure of Africa Panel; After Marten de Vos (Flemish, 1532-1603), Julius Goltzius; fruitwood; H x W x D: 47.6 x 32.3 x 3.3 cm (18 3/4 x 12 11/16 x 1 5/16 in.); Gift of the Estate of James Hazen Hyde; 1960-1-15-c

This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18706855/ |title=Figure of Africa Panel |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=7 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>