PAIR OF MEDAL BUSTES REPRESENTING ASIA AND AMERICA Louis XIV period, circa 1700 Patinated bronzes with their chased and gilded bronze frame H. 56 cm, D. 52 cm The bronze busts, sculpted in high relief as a counterpart to each other, represent two female figures whose attributes correspond to the iconography of two of the Four Worlds. Asia, wearing a turban with an aigrette, is dressed in a pleated tunic with a fruit clasp on the right shoulder. Her neck is very open, highlighting a pearl necklace centered on a cameo, her head is slightly tilted, her face somewhat melancholic. Her attire is reminiscent of the headdresses and jewellery of the Maharajas. America, with her curly hair topped by a feathered headdress, carries a quiver of arrows on her back. She is adorned with a pearl necklace. Her tunic is slightly indented, revealing a shoulder. Her hairstyle and the braids that adorn her garment recall the art of featherwork and the gold ornaments of the peoples of the New World. This theme of the Parts of the World, revived in the gardens of Versailles on the occasion of the Great Commission of 1674, enjoyed a new lease of life in the decorative arts under the reign of Louis XIV. Charles Cressent (Amiens, 1685-Paris, 1740) created four bronze busts representing the Four Parts of the World, identified by their attributes and an inscription on the pedestal (fig. 1). The series, which belonged to Gustave de Rothschild, shows Asia in the guise of a woman wearing a plume and America with a crown of feathers and a quiver. Here, each oval is adorned with its original gilded bronze frame in a laurel torus of exceptional chasing quality. The modelling of the figures with an elegant rigour testifies, like the frames, to a creation dating from the 1700s.