Portraits of the World. The Four Continents at Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola: The Figurative Code, Sources and Comparisons

Among the myriad allegories covering the Room of Maps in Palazzo Farnese, the four personified continents stand out around the vast world map. First of all the analysis focuses on their formal strategies of presentation and the vocabulary of attributes they adopt, borrowed from ancient Roman coinage, to investigate the reasons behind their classical-style robe and the ideological statement emerging from this adoption. This article aims to interpret the representation in relation to the patron’s communicational needs: indeed, the personifications are organically integrated with the various components of the hall to form a complex celebratory organism expressing the ideals of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese regarding his own temporal and spiritual role in the world and the role of the counter-reformed Church more broadly. In so doing, I also compare the figurative code deployed in the Room to the previous Camerino dei Continenti in Rome’s Palazzo Firenze and three lunettes in Rome’s Palazzo Ruggeri (1553 and 1591, respectively), outlining visual and semantic analogies. The Camerino offers an early representation of our theme brimming with mythological and erudite references - in the panel of the vault with Europa, Asia, and Africa - as well as exotic ones in the external ornamentation. Even the later lunettes depict an oecumene which is anachronistically still tripartite, though visually anchored in a recent source (i.e. the Theatrum orbis terrarum frontispiece). Starting from the main case-study and considering these less-studied frescoes, it is thus possible to delve into forms of confluence (intertwining or instances of resistance) between the world of antiquity and the world of geographic exploration, as displayed by each image, eventually shedding light on potential motivations and iconological implications.