Christ on the cross

Mario Marini Montesoro 1957 Genova - donazione

ambito peruviano

Scuola di Cuzco

1601 - 1800

C.I.C. 96

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 143; Larghezza: 105.6

Perù, Cuzco

Olio e oro zecchino su tela

This painting illustrates the influence of paintings on canvas, of European and specifically Spanish origin on indigenous Peruvian painters. With the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores in the 16th century, new forms of artistic expression made their way into Peru, and taking inspiration from European masters, the Cuzco school was created in the Inca capital. After the fall of the Inca Empire at the hands of the Conquistadores, over the following decades and centuries, a creolized art developed in Peru, in which indigenous elements were combined with elements of European origin. It is in the wake of this that this seventeenth-century canvas came into being, in which the presence of pure gold betrays the strong Spanish influence, giving it light and warmth and where the artist has ventured on a theme that has shaped not only the Christian faith, but the whole of western culture, of which it had by now become part. Oil on canvas depicting Christ crucified dressed in a loincloth (perizonium) and surrounded by vases of flowers and candelabra.