![Brooklyn Museum - Virgin of Carmel Saving Souls in Purgatory - Circle of Diego Quispe Tito - overall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Brooklyn_Museum_-_Virgin_of_Carmel_Saving_Souls_in_Purgatory_-_Circle_of_Diego_Quispe_Tito_-_overall.jpg)
The Cusco School (''Escuela cuzqueña'') or Cuzco School, was a
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
artistic tradition based in
Cusco,
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
(the former capital of the
Inca Empire
The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...
) during the Colonial period, in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. It was not limited to Cusco only, but spread to other cities in the
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
, as well as to present day
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
and
Bolivia.
Many colonial Cusco School paintings are preserved, most of them currently at Cusco, but also in other areas of Peru, the town of
Calamarca (Bolivia) and in museums of Brazil, United States and England.
History
The tradition originated after the 1534
Spanish conquest of the Peru,
["The 'Cusquenha' Art."](_blank)
National Historical Museum of Brazil. and it is considered the first artistic center that systematically taught European artistic techniques in the
Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
.
The
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
contribution, and in general
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
an, to the Cusco School of painting, is given from very early time, when the
construction
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form Physical object, objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Pr ...
of the
Cathedral of Cusco begins. However, it is the arrival of the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
painter
Bernardo Bitti
Democrito Bernardo Bitti (1548–1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest and painter. He introduced Mannerism to Peru, where he went on a Jesuit mission after having studied in Rome. On his way to Peru, Bitti traveled through Spain, where he bec ...
in 1583, that marks a beginning of the development of Cuzqueño art. The
Jesuit introduced in Cusco one of the fashionable currents in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
of the time,
Mannerism, whose main characteristics were the treatment of figures in a somewhat elongated way, with the
light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 te ...
focused on them.
During his two stays in Cusco, Bitti was commissioned to make the main altarpiece of the church of his Order, replaced by another after the
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
, and painted some masterpieces, such as ''The Coronation of the Virgin'', currently in the museum of the
church of La Merced, and the ''Virgen del pajarito'', in the cathedral.
![Cuzqueña3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Cuzque%C3%B1a3.jpg)
Another of the great exponents of Cusqueño mannerism is the painter
Luis de Riaño
Luis de Riaño (1596–c. 1667) was a Peruvian criollo painter, active in the 17th-century. His work is an important representation of Cusco School, the Peruvian colonial painting style.
Biography
Luis de Riaño was born in 1596 in Lima, Vicer ...
, born in
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...
and a disciple of Italian artist
Angelino Medoro
Angelino Medoro (1567–1631) was an Italian painter during the 17th-century, active in Latin America. His work in the Viceroyalty of Peru was greatly influential on the Cuzco School art movement.
Biography
Angelino Medoro was born in 1567 in p ...
. In the words of the Bolivian historians José de Mesa and
Teresa Gisbert, authors of the most complete history of Cuzqueño Art, Riaño lords in the local artistic environment between 1618 and 1640, leaving among other works, the murals of the church of
Andahuaylillas. Another standout in these first decades of the 17th century is the muralist
Diego Cusihuamán, with works in the churches of
Chinchero and
Urcos
Urcos is a small town in eastern Peru, capital of the province Quispicanchi in the region Cusco. It is home to a small lake and ruins.
Some time in the 15th Century, it is said that Hatun Tupaq Inca received visions of the Incan creator deity ...
.
The presence of
Baroque style in Cuzqueña painting is mainly the result of the influence of
tenebrism
Tenebrism, from Italian ' ("dark, gloomy, mysterious"), also occasionally called dramatic illumination, is a style of painting using especially pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becomes ...
through the work of
Francisco de Zurbarán
Francisco de Zurbarán ( , ; baptized 7 November 1598 – 27 August 1664) was a Spanish painter. He is known primarily for his religious paintings depicting monks, nuns, and martyrs, and for his still-lifes. Zurbarán gained the nickname "Spanish ...
and through inspiration from engravings of
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
art from
Antwerp.
Marcos Ribera, born in
Cusco in 1830, is the major exponent of this tendency. Five pieces of apostles by him can be seen in the
church of San Pedro, two in the altarpiece and another in a side reredos. The
monastery of Santa Catalina of Arequipa keeps ''La Piedad'', and that of St. Francis, some of the canvases that illustrate the life of the founder of the Order, belonging to various authors.
The increasing activity of Amerindian-Quechua and Mestizo painters towards the end of the 17th century, makes the term Cusco School conform more strictly to this artistic movement. This painting is "Cuzqueña", not only because it comes from the hands of local artists, but mainly because it moves away from the influence of the predominant trends in European art and follows its own path.
This new Cuzqueño art is characterized thematically by the interest in
Costumbrista
''Costumbrismo'' (sometimes anglicized as costumbrism, with the adjectival form costumbrist) is the literary or pictorial interpretation of local everyday life, mannerisms, and customs, primarily in the Hispanic scene, and particularly in the 19t ...
subjects such as the procession of Corpus Christi, and by the presence for the first time of
Andean
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S l ...
flora
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...
and
fauna
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...
. A series of portraits of Amerindian caciques and
genealogical
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...
and
heraldic
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known bran ...
paintings also appear. As for the technical treatment, there is a misunderstanding of the perspective added to a fragmentation of the space in several concurrent spaces or compartmentalized scenes. New chromatic solutions, with a predilection for intense colors, are another typical feature of the nascent pictorial style.
An event which occurred at the end of the 17th century, was decisive for the direction taken by Cuzqueña painting. In 1688, after continuous conflicts, there was a rupture in the corporation of painters that ended with the removal of the Amerindian-Quechua and Mestizo painters due, according to them, to the exploitation they were subjected by their Spanish colleagues. From this moment, free of the impositions of the corporation, the Amerindian and Mestizo artists were guided by their own sensibility and transfer to the canvas their mentality and their way of conceiving the world.
The most famous series of the Cuzco School is undoubtedly that of the sixteen paintings of the Corpus Christi series, which originally were in the
church of Santa Ana and are now in the
Museum of Religious Art of the Archbishopric of Cusco, except for three that are in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
. From an anonymous painter of the late-17th century (some researchers attribute them to the workshops of Diego Quispe Tito and Pumacallao), these canvases are considered true masterpieces because of the richness of their color, the quality of the drawing and how well they achieved the portraits of the main characters of each scene. The series has enormous historical and
ethnographic
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...
value, because it shows in detail the various social strata of Colonial Cusco, as well as many other elements of a festival that already was central in the life of the city.
The most original and important Amerindian painter is
Diego Quispe Tito, born in the parish of
San Sebastián, near to Cusco, in 1611 and active almost until end the century. It is in the work of Diego Quispe Tito that some of the characteristics of Cuzqueña painting are prefigured, such as a certain freedom in the handling of perspective, a previously unknown role of the landscape and the abundance of birds in the leafy trees that are part of the same. The motif of the birds, especially the Amazon forest's parrot, is interpreted by some researchers to refer to the Inca nobility.
The most valuable part of Quispe Tito's work is located in the church of his native town,
San Sebastián. One highlight is the series of twelve compositions on the life of St. John the Baptist, in the main nave of the church. Of great mastery are also the two enormous canvases dedicated to
Saint Sebastian
Saint Sebastian (in Latin: ''Sebastianus''; Narbo, Gallia Narbonensis, Roman Empire c. AD 255 – Rome, Italia, Roman Empire c. AD 288) was an early Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during the Diocle ...
, that of the ''asaetamiento'' and that of the death of the saint. Also famous is the series of the
Zodiac
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The pat ...
that the artist painted for the Cathedral of Cuzco towards 1680.
![The Virgin of Bethlehem in the city of Cusco](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/The_Virgin_of_Bethlehem_in_the_city_of_Cusco._17th_century.jpg)
Another outstanding painter of the Cusco School is
Basilio Santa Cruz Pumacallao, of
indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
ancestry like Quispe Tito, but unlike him, much more attached to the canons of Western painting within the Baroque current. Active in the second half of the 17th century, Santa Cruz leaves the best of his work in the Cathedral of Cusco, as he was commissioned to decorate the
walls
Walls may refer to:
*The plural of wall, a structure
*Walls (surname), a list of notable people with the surname
Places
* Walls, Louisiana, United States
* Walls, Mississippi, United States
* Walls, Ontario, neighborhood in Perry, Ontario, C ...
on the side of the choir and the arms of the transept. In the picture of the ''Virgin of Bethelem'', located in the choir, there is a portrait of the bishop and patron
Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo who helped the development of the Cusco Painting School and the city.
Such is the fame reached by the Cusqueña painting of the 17th century, which during the following century produces a singular phenomenon that curiously left its mark not only in art but in the local
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
. Industrial workshops made canvases in large quantities for merchants who would sell these works in cities such as
Trujillo,
Ayacucho
Ayacucho (, qu, Ayak'uchu) is the capital city of Ayacucho Region and of Huamanga Province, Ayacucho Region, Peru.
During the Inca Empire and Viceroyalty of Peru periods the city was known by the name of Huamanga (Quechua: Wamanga), and it c ...
,
Arequipa and
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...
, or even in much more distant places, in the current
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
,
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
and
Bolivia. The painter
Mauricio García, active towards the mid-18th century, for example, signed a contract to deliver about five hundred canvases in seven months. This was what was known as "ordinary" painting to differentiate it from the painting of fine ''brocateado'', with a much more elaborate and colorful design.
The most important artist of the 18th century is
Marcos Zapata. His pictorial output, which spans more than 200 paintings, ranges between 1748 and 1764. The best are the fifty large canvases that cover the high arches of the Cathedral of Cusco and that are characterized by the abundance of flora and fauna as a decorative element.
Authors
The Cuzqueña paintings were a form of
religious art
Religious art is artistic imagery using religious inspiration and motifs and is often intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual. Sacred art involves the ritual and cultic practices and practical and operative aspects of the path of the spiritu ...
whose main purpose was didactic.
The Spanish, who aimed to convert the Incas to Catholicism, sent a group of religious artists to Cusco.
These artists formed a school for
Quechua people
Quechua people (, ; ) or Quichua people, may refer to any of the aboriginal people of South America who speak the Quechua languages, which originated among the Indigenous people of Peru. Although most Quechua speakers are native to Peru, there ...
and Mestizos, teaching them
drawing and
oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
.
The designation "Cusqueña," however, is not limited to the city of Cusco or to indigenous artists, as White
Criollo
Criollo or criolla (Spanish for creole) may refer to:
People
* Criollo people, a social class in the Spanish race-based colonial caste system (the European descendants)
Animals
* Criollo duck, a species of duck native to Central and South Ameri ...
artists participated in the tradition as well.
A major patron of the Cuzco artists was Bishop Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo, who collected European art and made his collection available to Peruvian artists. He promoted and financially assisted such Cusqueña artists such as
Basilio Santa Cruz Pumacallao, Antonio Sinchi Roca Inka, and Marcos Rivera.
[Fane, p. 38]
Style
The defining characteristics of the Cusqueña style are believed to have originated in the art of Quechua painter
Diego Quispe Tito.
Cusqueña paintings are characterized by their use of exclusively religious subjects, their lack of
perspective, and the predominance of red, yellow and earth colors.
They are also remarkable for their lavish use of gold leaf, especially with images of the
Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
. Though the Cusqueño painters were familiar with prints of
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
,
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
and
Italian Renaissance art
Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political state ...
, their works were freer than those of their European tutors; they used bright colors and distorted, dramatic images. They often adapted the topics to depict their native flora and fauna as a backdrop in their works.
Warrior angels became a popular motif in Cusqueña paintings.
[
Most Cusqueña paintings were created anonymously because of Pre-Columbian traditions that define art as communal.] An exception is one of the last members of the Cuzco School, Marcos Zapata (c. 1710–1773). Other known artists of the Cuzco School include Diego Cusihuamán, Gregorio Gamarra, Basilio Santa Cruz Pumacallao (1635–1710), and Antonio Sinchi Roca Inka. Related to the school is the Master of Calamarca, active in the 18th century in Bolivia.
Collections
The largest collection of paintings from the Cusco School is in the Cusco Cathedral
, image = Cathédrale de Cusco Décembre 2007e.jpg
, image_size = 250px
, alt =
, caption = Main facade of the Cusco Cathedral.
, location = Cusco, Peru
, geo ...
. The Lima Art Museum and the Inca Museum also house important collections.
Many works were destroyed in the 18th century but many Cusco School paintings remain. In recent years there has been a significant increase in demand from both Latin American art collectors and certain museums for paintings from the Cusco school period. In 2010, the American government repatriated
Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...
two Cusco and Lima style paintings to Peru that had been illegally brought into the United States in 2005.
File:Marcos Zapata.jpg, ''The Last Supper'', 1753, by Marcos Zapata, in the Cuzco Cathedral. The festive animal to be consumed is a guinea pig
The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus '' Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the ...
.
File:Detalhe de pintura cuzquenha do século XVII.JPG,
File:Cusi Huarcay.jpg,
File:Cuzqueña2.jpg,
File:Warriorangel.jpg,
File:Master of Calamarca, Angel with Wheat.jpg, Master of Calamarca, ''Angel with wheat stalks'' from the church of Calamarca
File:SanJosedeCuzco.jpg,
File:Cuzqueña4.jpg,
File:Loyola y Coya.jpg,
File:Nursing Madonna Cusco School.jpg, Nursing Madonna, Colonial Cusco Painting
File:Brooklyn Museum - The Legend of Santa Sophronia - Circle of Diego Quispe Tito - overall.jpg, ''The Legend of Santa Sophronia'', circle of Diego Quispe Tito, 2nd half of the 17th century (Brooklyn Museum of Art
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...
)
File:Angel letiel.jpg, '' The Angel Letiel'' by the Master of Calamarca, 17th century
Cuzco School artists
* Master of Calamarca, 18th century, Bolivia
* Basilio de Santa Cruz Pumacallao, 1635–1710, Peru
* Antonio Sinchi Roca Inka, 17th century, Peru
* Diego Quispe Tito, 1611—1681, Peru
* Marcos Zapata, c. 1710—1773, Peru
Modern interpretations
The nationally recognized "Vírgenes Urbanas" project aims to recreate the paintings of the Cusco school replacing the figures with Indigenous people, as well as Indigenous angels, Virgin Marys and saints like Rose of Lima with new Indigenous faces in order to represent the Peruvian population. In addition to the paintings, artists do Indigenous photo montages on recreations of the paintings. According to them, the Cusco School is a symbol of the power of the colonizer "representing images with Caucasian features, imposing ideas, religion and Western stereotypes" and the project re-poses them with new signs that refer directly to the descendants of the former victims.
These new paintings are also exhibited in many museums throughout the country.
Throughout his life, the painter Ray Martìn Abeyta created works inspired by the Cusco School style of Madonna painting, creating a hybrid of traditional and contemporary Latino subject matter representing the colonialist encounters between Europeans and Mesoamericans.
Miscellaneous
Today Peruvian local artists paints replicas of Colonial Cusco paintings that sell to tourists.
See also
* Ángeles arcabuceros
* Art of Latin America
* Art of Peru
*Latin American artists of indigenous descent
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the 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 the power of the ...
References
Works cited
* Bakewell, Peter J. ''A History of Latin America: C. 1450 to the Present.'' Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
* Bethell, Leslie. ''The Cambridge History of Latin America.'' Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
Cambridge University Pre ...
, 1995. .
* Fane, Diana, ed. ''Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America.'' New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1996. .
Further reading
* Bailey, Gauvin Alexander. ''Art of Colonial Latin America''. London: Phaidon 2005. .
* Castedo, Leopoldo, ''The Cuzco Circle''. 1976.
* Cossío del Pomar, Felipe, ''Peruvian colonial art: The Cuzco school of painting''. New York, Distributed by Wittenborn 964* ''Gloria in excelsis: the Virgin and Angels in Viceregal Painting of Peru and Bolivia''. New York: Center for Inte-American Relations Art Gallery, 1984. Exhibition catalogue.
* Kelemen, Pál. ''Vanishing art of the Americas''. New York : Walker, 1977.
* Mesa, José de and Teresa Gisbert, ''Historia de la pintura cuzqueña''. 2 vols. 1982.
*
Scholarly articles
in English about Cuzco School, 18th century at th
Spanish Old Masters Gallery
{{Spanish Empire, state=collapsed
Peruvian art
Bolivian art
Indigenous painting of the Americas
Mannerism
Catholic painting
Spanish Baroque
Baroque painting
Spanish Golden Age