Western Iconography of the Four Continents Related to the Drawing by Giuseppe Valeriani from the State Hermitage

The article highlights some conventions of depiction of Four Continents allegories in Modern European art, especially Italian, French and Flemish. It concerns pictorial arts as well as literary sources including Iconologia by Cesare Ripa and Dictionnaire iconologique by Lacombe de Prezel. The discourse is exemplified with Guiseppe Valeriani's drawing from The State Hermitage. Earlier it has been considered to be a sketch for Bellerophontes opera but the special studies show that there is a false attribution and allow to regard this subject-matter as representation of Four Continents allegories.