{
"data": {
"id": 97957,
"accession_number": "1917.601",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Pairs of Figures from the Four Continents, c. 1760. Chelsea Porcelain Factory (Britain, London, 1745\u201384). Soft-paste porcelain; part 1: 24.6 x 18.9 x 16.9 cm (9 11/16 x 7 7/16 x 6 5/8 in.); part 2: 23.5 x 17.6 x 18.7 cm (9 1/4 x 6 15/16 x 7 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Mary Warden Harkness, 1917.601",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Pairs of Figures from the Four Continents",
"creation_date": "c. 1760",
"creation_date_earliest": 1755,
"creation_date_latest": 1765,
"artists_tags": [
"gender unknown"
],
"culture": [
"England, Chelsea, mid-18th century"
],
"technique": "soft-paste porcelain",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Decorative Art and Design",
"collection": "Decorative Arts",
"type": "Ceramic",
"measurements": "Part 1: 24.6 x 18.9 x 16.9 cm (9 11/16 x 7 7/16 x 6 5/8 in.); Part 2: 23.5 x 17.6 x 18.7 cm (9 1/4 x 6 15/16 x 7 3/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"part 1": {
"height": 0.246,
"height_inch": 9,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"width": 0.189,
"width_inch": 7,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.4375,
"depth": 0.169,
"depth_inch": 6,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.625
},
"part 2": {
"height": 0.235,
"height_inch": 9,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 0.176,
"width_inch": 6,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.9375,
"depth": 0.187,
"depth_inch": 7,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 346817,
"title": "Art of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries",
"description": "Art of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 9-December 2, 1934).",
"opening_date": "1934-11-09T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 706804,
"title": "English Pottery and Porcelain, 1300-1850",
"description": "English Pottery and Porcelain, 1300-1850. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (January 19-February 28, 1954).",
"opening_date": "1954-01-19T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Mary Warden Harkness [1864-1916], New York, NY, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-1916",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1917-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Figural representations of the four continents date back to the 1500s, but such imagery became even more popular in the 1700s as European empires expanded.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Often collected by wealthy British merchants who were beneficiaries of colonial expansion, figural groups were frequently part of elaborate table decorations meant to signify wealth and global prominence. In one pair, Europe is seen holding an orb and wearing a crown as queen of the world, suggesting Europe\u2019s supremacy over the other continents. She is entangled with America, who is wearing feathers with a bow and arrow at her feet. Africa, who wears an elephant headdress and holds a scorpion in one hand, wrestles with Asia, who is surrounded by perfumes and native fruits. Today we recognize these depictions of America, Africa, and Asia as racial stereotypes, revealing a purely imagined understanding of other cultures and continents at the time.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60760667"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1917.601-pairs-of-figures-fro"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "\"Bequest of Mrs. Charles W. Harkness.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 4 (1917): 63.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 63",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25136090"
},
{
"citation": "F. A. W. \"The Bequests of Mary Warden Harkness: A Tribute and an Accounting.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 15, no. 2 (February 1928): 43-50.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 43",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/25137106"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1917.601",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1917.601/1917.601_web.jpg",
"width": "900",
"height": "674",
"filesize": "233214",
"filename": "1917.601_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1917.601/1917.601_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2546",
"filesize": "1404768",
"filename": "1917.601_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
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"width": "6001",
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},
"alternate_images": [
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"date_created": "2007-08-10T20:21:58",
"annotation": ""
}
],
"creditline": "Bequest of Mary Warden Harkness",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 97957,
"creators": [
{
"id": 18265,
"description": "Chelsea Porcelain Factory (Britain, London, 1745\u201384)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "manufactured by",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1917-04-27T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1755,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1760",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "cover",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Europe and America; Asia and Africa"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-07-24 11:49:00.858000"
}
}