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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-et ...

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 Col ...

– from Pasto 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 located ...

in the north to

Piura Piura is a city in northwestern Peru located in the Sechura Desert on the Piura River. It is the capital of the Piura Region and the Piura Province. Its population was 484,475 as of 2017. It was here that Spanish Conqueror Francisco Pizarro ...

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 of Spain (1716–1788), referring to one of its sculptors in particular, opined: "I am not concerned that Italy has

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was in ...

; 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 Fray Pedro Bedón Díaz de Pineda ( – ) was a South American Dominican friar and painter of the Quito school. Biography Fray Pedro Bedón was born in 1556 in Quito, then part of the Viceroyalty of Peru (present-day Ecuador). He entered th ...

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 Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...

, 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

and

miscegenation Miscegenation ( ) is the interbreeding of people who are considered to be members of different Race (human categorization), races. The word, now usually considered pejorative, is derived from a combination of the Latin terms ''miscere'' ("to m ...

, 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 marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

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, and

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...

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 Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-karat ...

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

* Nicolás Javier Goríbar * Hernando de la Cruz * Miguel de Santiago (''ca.'' 1620s-1706) *

Manuel de Samaniego Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name) * Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * Manu ...

Isabel de Santiago Isabel de Cisneros (1666 – ca. 1714) was a female Criollo colonial painter born in the colony of Quito (Ecuador). She was the daughter of Miguel de Santiago, one of the most famous colonial Quito School painters. Often referred to as Isabel de ...

*Friar Pedro Gosseal

Sculptors

* Bernardo de Legarda (''ca.'' 1700—1 June 1773) *

Manuel Chili Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name) * Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * Manu ...

(Caspicara) *

Miguel Angel Tejada Zambrano --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael (given 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 ...

María Estefanía Dávalos y Maldonado María Estefanía Dávalos y Maldonado (January 5, 1725 in Chimborazo – Quito, c. 1801) was an Ecuadorian sculptor and painter. She was a part of the Quito School of the 18th century. Her most famous work is ''La Virgen del Carmen'', a sculptur ...

File:Virgin of Quito MET DP105182.jpg, “Winged Virgin of the Apocalypse” by Miguel de Santiago. File:Ecuador Hausaltar mit Virgen de Quito 02 EthnM.jpg, Virgin of Quito” 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 Revelatio ...

. 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 Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, Pichincha ...

, Ecuador. MUNA. 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. Oil on canvas, 137 x 137 cm. Santiago de Guápulo,

, 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 Iglesia may refer to: * Iglesia Department * Iglesia ni Cristo * Iglesia Filipina Independiente * Iglesia (Metro Madrid), a station on Line 1 {{disambiguation ...

, Ecuador.

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