Rosalba Carriera’s Four Continents and the Commerce of Skin
Abstract
Rosalba Carriera’s approach to the Four Continents stands out in the early eighteenth century for its unusual attention to facial complexion, distinguishing the allegorical figures less through symbolic attributes than through subtle gradations of skin. Should her distinctive approach be understood as a reflection of emerging racial ideology, or did it stem from the technical exigencies of pastel and an art market hungry for novel surface effects? By situating the series within the culture of collecting fueled by John Law’s speculative financial system, I argue that Carriera’s virtuosic treatment of skin helped aestheticize dermal difference, indirectly feeding into the period’s developing discourse on race without directly illustrating it.