A national personification is an anthropomorphic personification of a state or the people(s) it inhabits. It may appear in

political cartoon A political cartoon, a form of editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combin ...

s and propaganda. Some early personifications in the Western world tended to be national manifestations of the majestic wisdom and war goddess

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the R ...

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of v ...

, and often took the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

name of the ancient

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

. Examples of this type include

Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Grea ...

, Germania, Hibernia,

Hispania Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hi ...

, Helvetia and Polonia. Examples of personifications of the Goddess of Liberty include Marianne, the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the United States. The copper statue, ...

(''Liberty Enlightening the World''), and many examples of United States coinage. Another ancient model was

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council * Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

, a female

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

who personified the city of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and more broadly, the Roman state, and who was revived in the 20th Century as the personification of

Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until Fall of the Fascist re ...

's " New Roman Empire". Examples of representations of the everyman or citizenry in addition to the nation itself are

Deutscher Michel (; "Michael the German") is a figure representing the national character of the German people, rather as John Bull represents the English. He originated in the first half of the 19th century. Overview Michel differs from figures that serv ...

, John Bull and Uncle Sam.Eric Hobsbawm, "Mass-Producing Traditions: Europe, 1870-1914," in Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds., ''The Invention of Tradition'' (Cambridge, 1983), 263-307.

Gallery

File:Vespasian. Judaea Capta commemorative (CNG 303440).jpg, ''Iudaea Capta'', "Conquered Judaea", commemorative coin issued by the Roman emperor

Vespasian Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Emp ...

(left) after the Jewish War File:4 Gift Bringers of Otto III.jpg, An early example of national personification in a gospel book dated 990: Sclavinia, Germania, Gallia, and

, bringing offerings to Emperor Otto III. Image:Allegorie Pacificatie van Gent.jpg, In this Allegory depicting the 1576 Pacification of Ghent by Adriaen Pietersz van de Venne, the seated women represent a short-lived unity among the embattled provinces of what would become the present-day Belgium and Netherlands File:Friedrich Overbeck 008.jpg, '' Italia und Germania'' (1828) by Johann Friedrich Overbeck. File:Naval-race-1909.jpg, 1909 cartoon in '' Puck'' shows (clockwise) US, Germany, Britain, France and Japan engaged in naval race in a "no limit" game.

Personifications by country or territory

References

External links

A scholarly case study of the evolution of Deutscher Michel

Kirsten Stirling: "The Image of the Nation as a Woman in Twentieth Century Scottish Literature"
{{DEFAULTSORT:National Personification National personifications, Visual arts genres Liberty symbols

Gallery

Personifications by country or territory

See also

References

Further reading

External links