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Premium Viceregal School. Cuzco. 18th century.
Viceregal School. Cuzco. 18th century.
Lot no. 72
Description
Viceregal School. Cuzco. 18th century.
“The Holy Trinity enthroned as three identical figures, with the Virgin Mary as Reader and other saints.”
Oil on canvas. Relined.
74 x 64 cm.
With his own unique, mestizo style, this unknown Peruvian artist presents a work rich in color and detail. The painting is clearly devotional and catechetical in nature, depicting particular devotions, either of the person who commissioned the work or of the religious order or member of the clergy who wanted it for a corner of their chapel or church.
In regions such as the central Andes, the need to educate, catechize, and differentiate Catholicism from the multiple native gods required avoiding the confusion presented by the Catholic dogma of the Holy Trinity. And this is the central theme of the painting, as it occupies more than half of its height.
To illustrate its meaning for indigenous peoples, he uses the ancient medieval art of representing it in the form of three identical persons, seated and crowned with tiaras. Thus, any reference to the animal world would be omitted, preventing the Dove of the Holy Spirit from being identified with any Andean deity. At the same time, he clearly expressed the notion of three equal persons, formally united and inseparable as the manifestation of one God.
Therefore, the author of this work clearly reflects that it is a catechetical work, very effectively conveying the impression of harmony between the three divine persons seated on their respective thrones (replaced here by monk's chairs). The scene is enveloped in the golden glow of an ideal space, a luminosity that is intensified by the contrast of white tunics with the deep crimson interior of the rose-embroidered copes that cover them, and the gold applied to the edges of the copes, the centers, and the crowns. A work whose hypnotic effect of the figures repeated in that nebulous clarity seems to captivate us optically and recreate the experience of God.
The Virgin, who is greatly revered in Peru, is presented here as a Reader, emerging “timidly” in the sky. In the Annunciation and the Incarnation, Mary is shown to us reading alone, in an attitude of contemplation and acceptance. This is the way of reading that is repeated in other invocations such as the Immaculate Conception or the Virgin of Carmen, among others.
In the city of Seville, we can contemplate images that also correspond to the iconography of the Immaculate Conception bearing the symbol of the book, such as the Virgin of Regina in the church of San Martín (canvas) which comes from the Dominican Convent of Regina Angelorum, as well as the Virgin of the Glorious Incarnation of San Benito (sculpture).
Four saints complete this scene:
On the left, a nun dressed in a black habit, who may be Saint Rita of Cascia (without a thorn on her forehead); or Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine (both Augustinians); or Saint Margaret of Hungary, a Benedictine like the one in front of her.
Below, Saint Anthony the Abbot with his staff and bell, the pig and the Tau on his sackcloth habit, which the Hospitaller Brothers of Saint Anthony adopted as their protection, as did the Franciscans.
On the right, Saint Gertrude of Helfta or Saint Gertrude the Great as Abbess and “wounded by Love”; and below, Saint Augustine of Hippo, with the Augustinian symbol of his burning heart, a desire to unravel the mysteries of knowledge and wisdom in the Scriptures.
A painting that completes the history of 18th-century Peruvian art and its intentions, with that new mestizo cultural identity reflected in art, in which indigenous and mestizo artists assimilated European techniques and themes, but incorporated their own traditions and worldviews.
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