Cusquely painting school
With the conquest of Cuzco by the Spaniards, in 1534, a profound transformation began in the political history of the Inca Empire, as well as a new chapter in its history of art.
A Cuskean painting emerges as ecclesiastical art and its main purpose was didactic - especially catechetical, since the Spaniards, with the growing process of appropriation of the wealth of the new colony, set out for the conversion of pagan souls to the Catholic religion.
The image was - allied to the word - the only very effective means of transmitting Catholicism. Betting on the evangelization of the peoples of the Inca community, Spain sends a group of religious artists to create doctrinal works, forming schools of Indian or mestizo painters, with the teaching of the art of drawing and oil.
The term "Cusquinho", however, is not limited to Cuzco, the origin of these Spanish-American colonial paintings, which were produced equally in other Andean countries, such as Bolivia and Ecuador, between the 16th and 18th centuries. The denomination became more widespread as the city of Cuzco, Peru, the capital and the center of the Inca Empire. In any case, the school of Cuzco is considered the first pictorial center organized in the so-called New World. Average: Biblical scenes from the Catholic tradition - the glorification of Jesus, Virgin Mary and Saints, Last Judgment, with the glories of paradise and the damnation of hell. earthy. They emphasize the physical beauty of the figures swelling the saints to reduce their devotees to tiny dots on the screens. They create the impression of statuary volume of sumptuous mantles and contour monument to curtains and columns. of Europeans: bright colors, distorted images to give greater drama to the scene, on a background illustrated with fauna and flora of the Andes adorned with angels and archangels. Pre-Columbians, whose art was essentially community and ritual.
The Cusquent School of Painting, in a way, represents the true encounter between two worlds, the exact moment when art has become a tool of doctrine and, above the interests or rules, It has become a genuine artistic manifestation that can be considered the first mestizo expression in Latin America.
