From Roman Africa to Roman America

Roman art personified Rome as a goddess linked to Peace and Liberty. It depicted its province Africa with scorpion, lion and cornucopia, wearing an elephant scalp and subservient to Rome. After the discovery of America, the Four Quarters of the World became an important theme in European art for some three centuries. Europe was always the Queen. Africa kept its Roman attributes; America was shown as a cannibal with bow and arrow, wearing only feathers. Often they were confused. When European settlers in North America began to depict America this image changed, becoming first the 'daughter of England' and later Columbia, looking like a Roman goddess and linked, like Rome, to Peace and Liberty.