Uplifting discoveries for colonial art.

• Author: Stroessner, Robert J.
• Position: Discovery and conservation of discovered colonial paintings in the City of Cuzco, Peru - Art

Would you believe that a valuable Latin American colonial painting served, for a time, as a cushion for an onion vender? Adoration of the Kings, a monument to 18th century Cuzco painting in the Frank Barrows Freyer Collection of Peruvian Colonial Art at the Denver Art Museum, has had a turbulent existence. Now, after a very expensive face lift, this famous painting is revealing some previously unsuspected secrets.

Mrs. Frank Freyer discovered the painting in Cuzco's farmers market in the 1920s. She had made the long journey from Lima to show the city of Cuzco to the new American ambassador and his staff. While buying foodstuffs in the open air market, she noticed some bright colors on an old cushion where an onion vender sat. After making a purchase, Mrs. Freyer asked to see the cushion. Unfolded, it turned out to be a splendid large colonial painting with vivid colors and stencil-like patterns of pure gold.

How the Adoration of the Kings came into the possession of the onion vender is one of the paintings's mysteries. Communication between Mrs. Freyer and the vendor was free enough to allow for purchase of the precious canvas but not for explanations as to its history.

When the Freyer Collection came to the Denver Art Museum many years later, the Adoration of the Kings proved to be one of its stars. As an art historian and museum curator, I was instantly intrigued with the painting. Although typically Cuzqueno in style, the telltale brush strokes of the artist were hard to identify. In most of the standard references on colonial art it remained listed as "Artist unknown, period unknown, copy after an engraving, probably Rubens."

On a trip to Cuzco several years ago, I had the good fortune to wander into the Cathedral's adjoining Church of the Triumph when the early morning sunlight was shinning on a nearly identical painting. This one had been shaped to fit around a center window of the curving vault above the entrance, but the style was similar to that of the Freyer Adoration. With this happy discovery, I began an in-depth historical investigation of the painting in the Church of the Triumph. I discovered that a major commission had been granted in 1750 to Marcos Zapata, a young local artist, to paint nearly 70 enormous paintings on the life of the Virgin Mary for the ceiling vaults of the Cathedral. The paintings were completed between 1755 and 1760, with the help of Cipriano Toledo y Gutierrez. The Freyer Adoration clearly showed the...