Three artists of Cuzco: three centuries of colonial art.

• Author: Stroessner, Bob
• Position: Peru

The art of colonial Latin America reflects a rich and fascinating age created by a luxury-loving society little understood in our time. Pedro de Vargas, Diego Quispe Tito and Marcos Zapata, three great artists of Cuzco, Peru, were as important to colonial Spanish art as Giotto and Leonardo da Vinci were to the Italian Renaissance. De Vargas, Quispe and Zapata spent their lives creating public art for their community, and their works remain a testament to a unique cultural heritage spanning three centuries. Yet they have been largely and undeservedly ignored by contemporary scholarship.

The story of these artists is closely linked to the history of the great Inca capital city of Cuzco. Like a Florence of the New World, Cuzco was the center of culture for an extensive region of the Spanish colony, isolated from the rest of the world by the Andes Mountains. Sacked and burned three times during the conquest, Cuzco's Inca ruins survived as foundations for the Spanish buildings which rose above the old city. Several major Christian churches were actually built on top of Inca temples to encourage acceptance of the new religion; other impressive mission churches were built throughout the rugged Cuzco region.

Cuzco's art tradition was born in these churches. Intended to promote the cult of the Virgin and Jesus Christ and replace the ancient worship of the gods of the moon and sun, the churches were furnished with spectacular interiors calculated to amaze the Indian population. The altars, paintings and sculptures became a visual language for an Indian audience unschooled in either European religion or history. European artists were imported to ensure that the symbolism and iconography were correct. The artists brought with them the reigning Hispano-Flemish style, typified by high-finish paintings with sharp focus and careful detail.

Pedro de Vargas was one such immigrant artist. Born near Cordoba, Spain in 1553, he became a soldier so he could travel to Peru. By 1574 he had joined the Society of Jesus and was listed as the assistant to the Italian Mannerist painter, Bernardo Bitti. The two young Jesuits travelled throughout Peru supervising the construction of great altar screens--enormous carved wooden frames enclosing sculptures, paintings or relief panels modeled from gesso and the wild rushes growing in Lake Titicaca.

These altar pieces were the focal point of the mission church interiors, and represented the most costly and labor-intensive...