PIER FRANCESCO MOLA (ATTRIBUTED TO)

(Coldrerio 1612-1666 Rome) A Female Allegorical Figure Holding a Bow (Allegory of America ?). Pen and and brown ink on cream laid paper mounted on laid paper. 182x120 mm; 7x4 inches. Numbered "138" in ink, lower center recto. Ex-collection Heinrich Wilhelm Campe (Lugt 1391, upper right recto) and Blome, ink stamp verso (not in Lugt). The figure in the current work may be related to Mola's fresco in the Palazzo Pamphilij at Valmontone, outside Rome, representing the continent of America. There is another, more developed, drawing showing the full figure similarly dressed, yet without the bow, that in 1992 was with Thomas Le Claire and was described as a rejected prima idea by Mola (catalog VIII, no. 25). Mola received payment for this commission in 1658. The woman's attributes closely follow Cesare Ripa's description of America in his Iconologia where she is said to hold a bow in her left hand.