Andes Colonial Art

In the Andean region Flemish and Italian influences are evident in the great painting centers of Bogotá and Quito, but Cuzco was the main center of pictorial productivity, and here the contribution of the native artist was of paramount importance. Native strains were also noticeable in the design of broadsides and aleluyas of the 18th and 19th cent. This art form, often called folk lithography, was common in Mexico and Venezuela and was often political in nature.

Cusco painting, one of the most important schools of the American art has it's origin in the city of Cusco and it was developed among the Andean zone, an expressive esthetic of the virreynal society.

A standardized characteristic is that the painting passes to hands of native and Creole artists, who were formed by the teachers of the precedent period, who begin to form the art schools that define the customs of each region. During the centuries XVII and XVIII together with the Spanish colonization arrived continiously versions of flamenco, Italy and Spain of the madonnas, saints and crucifictions to illustrate with clear and didactic images their religion.

The native painters left the European influence creating a painting of singular beauty and originality, transforming it in popular art. The virgin alone of with the little boy, the Cusco madonnas, the harquebusiers, archangels well dressed, armed as celestial armies, the holy family, the little girl virgin, saint Michael archangel.

Families of the Indian and Creole painters are still living in Peru, Bolivia and Argentina, recreating and enriching this painting with the technics utilized in oil painting over clothes.

Tapestries and Silverwork

The enormous material resources Andean communities dedicated to the embellishment of their churches are evident in the vast quantities of exuberantly patterned silver applied to their decoration, fostering the creation of the Andean Baroque style. An elaborate silver lectern (private collection, Argentina) on view in the exhibition is but one example of Andean ecclesiastical objects. Crafted ca. 1700, this reading stand would have been placed on an altar to hold the book of scripture from which the officiant reads during the celebration of the Mass.

Its simple wooden structure is overlaid with sheet silver densely decorated with a pair of whimsical angels swinging censers from intricately worked chains, all surrounded by abstract strapwork and foliage, typical of the Baroque style in the highlands between Cusco and Puno. Also exhibited will be a later work, a mid-18th-century Eucharistic vessel made of gold, silver, and precious stones in the form of a pelican (Monasterio de Nuestra Señora del Prado, Lima). The theme of the "Pelican in Her Piety," according to legend, plucking flesh from her own breast to nourish her children, was a symbol of Christ's sacrifice, actualized in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. In the Andes, great silver pelicans such as this one were made with chambers in their breasts to contain the Host and were paraded in the processions of Holy Thursday.

The exuberant mélange of flora, fauna, and local variations of imported Asian and European motifs employed in the liturgical arts also crossed over into secular works, as displayed in superbly crafted silver objects and weavings created for domestic use. On view will be a richly patterned poncho (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), a tapestry-woven garment filled with elaborate floral borders and with musicians woven in silver threads. A beautiful silver "coca box" dating from ca. 1775 (private collection, Madrid) may have been used to hold coca leaves or leaves of yerba mate, which were both brewed as tea. This "Andeanan Rococo"-style box is but one example of the distinctively designed household items dedicated to communal beverage consumption that will be displayed in the exhibition.

The exhibition is organized around a series of themes including issues of Andean identity, cross-cultural influences from Europe and Asia, Christianity in the Andes, viceregal secular style, and memory and transformation. Re-evaluation of Colonial art in recent years celebrates the vital nature of cultural encounters expressed in the art of the period. Colonial paintings, keros (wooden ritual drinking vessels), and works in other media accompanying the tapestries and silverwork provide a contextual presentation of the significance of and transformations within this complex and compelling period of history.