The Quito School (''Escuela Quiteña'') is a
Latin American
Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-eth ...
artistic tradition that constitutes essentially the whole of the professional artistic output developed in the territory of the
Royal Audience of Quito
The of Quito (sometimes referred to as or ) was an administrative unit in the Spanish Empire which had political, military, and religious jurisdiction over territories that today include Ecuador, parts of northern Peru, parts of southern Colo ...
– from
Pasto
Pasto, officially San Juan de Pasto (; "Saint John of Pasto"), is the capital of the department of Nariño, in southern Colombia. Pasto was founded in 1537 and named after indigenous people of the area. In the 2018 census, the city had app ...
and
Popayán
Popayán () is the capital of the Colombian department of Cauca. It is located in southwestern Colombia between the Western Mountain Range and Central Mountain Range. It has a population of 318,059 people, an area of 483 km2, is locate ...
in the north to
Piura and
Cajamarca
Cajamarca (), also known by the Quechua name, ''Kashamarka'', is the capital and largest city of the Cajamarca Region as well as an important cultural and commercial center in the northern Andes. It is located in the northern highlands of Peru ...
in the south – during the
Spanish colonial period (1542–1824). It is especially associated with the 17th and 18th centuries and was almost exclusively focused on the religious art of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in the country. Characterized by a mastery of the realistic and by the degree to which indigenous beliefs and artistic traditions are evident, these productions were among of the most important activities in the economy of the Royal Audience of Quito. Such was the prestige of the movement even in Europe that it was said that
King Carlos III
it, Carlo Sebastiano di Borbone e Farnese
, house = Bourbon-Anjou
, father = Philip V of Spain
, mother = Elisabeth Farnese
, birth_date = 20 January 1716
, birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Spain
, death_d ...
of Spain (1716–1788), referring to one of its sculptors in particular, opined: "I am not concerned that Italy has
Michelangelo; in my colonies of America I have the master
Caspicara".
Origins
The Quito School originated in the school of Artes y Oficios, founded in 1552 by the Franciscan priest
Jodoco Ricke, who together with Friar
Pedro Bedón transformed the San Andrés seminary, where the first indigenous artists were trained. As a cultural expression, it is the result of a long process of acculturation between indigenous peoples and Europeans, and it is one of the richest expressions of
miscegenation (''mestizaje'') and of
syncretism, in which the participation of the vanquished Indian is seemingly of minor importance as compared to the dominant European contribution.
Characteristics
As a product of cultural
syncretism and
miscegenation
Miscegenation ( ) is the interbreeding of people who are considered to be members of different races. The word, now usually considered pejorative, is derived from a combination of the Latin terms ''miscere'' ("to mix") and ''genus'' ("race") ...
, the works of the Quito School are characterized by the combination and adaptation of European and Indigenous features. In its development, it reflected the styles prevailing in each period of Spain and thus contains
renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
and
mannerist
Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...
elements. During its height, it was eminently
baroque, concluding with a short
rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
period leading to an incipient
neoclassicism until the transition to the
republican period. The Quito School also incorporated
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; ...
,
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 ...
, and
Moorish influences.
One of the common characteristics of the school is the technique of ''encarnado'' ("flesh-colored") — the simulation of the color of the flesh of the (European) human body — that makes the skin of sculptures appear more natural. Once the piece was perfectly cut and sanded, an artisan covered the wood with several layers of
gesso
Gesso (; "chalk", from the la, gypsum, from el, γύψος) is a white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment, or any combination of these. It is used in painting as a preparation for any number of substrates suc ...
with glue. Each layer was highly polished to achieve a perfectly smooth finish. Next, color was applied in various transparent layers, allowing an optical mix of overlapping colors. This began with the colors of shadows (blue, green, ocher), then light colors were applied (white, pink, yellow). and finally highlight colors were added (orange and red to cheeks, knees, and elbows of children; and dark blue, green, and violet for wounds and bruises of Christ or for stubble on a beardless figure).
Other typical characteristics include:
*Serpentine representation of the movement of bodies, especially in sculpture
*Application of
''aguada'' (watercolor) on top of
gold leaf or silver paint, giving a special metallic sheen
The features indicating its indigenous roots include:
* "Quiteñization" of characters, with mixed traits and local costumes
* Frequent appearance of ancestral indigenous customs
* Location of the scenes within the Andean countryside or cities
* Presence of local flora and fauna, and the substitution of local plants for traditional European iconography
Notable artists
Painters
*
Vicente Albán
*Friar
Pedro Bedón
*
Nicolás Javier Goríbar
*
Hernando de la Cruz
*
Miguel de Santiago
-->
Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to:
Places
* Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands
* São Miguel (disa ...
(''ca.'' 1620s-1706)
*
Manuel de Samaniego
*
Isabel de Santiago
*Friar
Pedro Gosseal
Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter.
The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...
Sculptors
*
Bernardo de Legarda (''ca.'' 1700—1 June 1773)
*
Manuel Chili (Caspicara)
*
Miguel Angel Tejada Zambrano
*
María Estefanía Dávalos y Maldonado
File:Virgin of Quito MET DP105182.jpg, “Winged Virgin of the Apocalypse” by Miguel de Santiago
-->
Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to:
Places
* Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands
* São Miguel (disa ...
.
File:Ecuador Hausaltar mit Virgen de Quito 02 EthnM.jpg, Virgin of Quito
The ''Virgin of Quito'' (Spanish, ''La Virgen de Quito'') — also known as the ''Virgin of the Apocalypse'', ''Winged Virgin of Quito'', ''Dancing Madonna'', and ''Legarda's Virgin'' — is a wooden sculpture by the Quiteño artist Bernardo ...
” by Bernardo de Legarda. The wooden sculpture follows the theme of the Woman of the Apocalypse
The Woman of the Apocalypse (or the woman clothed with the sun, el, γυνὴ περιβεβλημένη τὸν ἥλιον; Latin: ) is a figure, traditionally believed to be the Virgin Mary, described in Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelati ...
.
File:Taller de San José (Miguel de Samaniego) - Siglo XVIII.JPG, Close-up view of “St. Joseph's Workshop” by Manuel de Samaniego. Oil on canvas, 51 x 69.4 cm, 18th century. Quito, Ecuador. MUNA
Muna may refer to:
Places
* Muna (Mikulovice), a World War II POW camp and ammunition factory in the Czech Republic
* Muna, Estonia, village in Rõuge Parish, Võru County, Estonia
* Muna, Iran, village in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Mu ...
.
File:Virgen Guápulo.jpg, “Procession during the time of drought” from the painting series “The Virgin of Guápulo's miracles” (1699-1706) by Miguel de Santiago
-->
Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to:
Places
* Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands
* São Miguel (disa ...
. Oil on canvas, 137 x 137 cm. Santiago de Guápulo, Quito, Ecuador.
File:Virgen del Carmen by Isabel de Santiago.jpg, Close-up view of “Virgin of El Carmen” by Isabel de Santiago.
File:El Infierno - Hernando de la Cruz (siglo XVII).jpg, Replica of “Hell” by Hernando de la Cruz, 17th century. Iglesia de la Compañía, Quito, Ecuador.
See also
*
Virgin of Quito
The ''Virgin of Quito'' (Spanish, ''La Virgen de Quito'') — also known as the ''Virgin of the Apocalypse'', ''Winged Virgin of Quito'', ''Dancing Madonna'', and ''Legarda's Virgin'' — is a wooden sculpture by the Quiteño artist Bernardo ...
*
Baroque
References
External links
The colonial Andes: tapestries and silverwork, 1530-1830 an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on the Quito School
{{Spanish Empire, state=collapsed
Ecuadorian art
Baroque painting
Rococo art
Spanish art
Spanish Baroque
Viceroyalty of Peru