Paintings of Colonial Cusco - Artistic Splendor in the Andes

This app presents high-quality photographs of 158 Spanish colonial paintings produced in the Cusco region of Peru, spanning the 16th to the 19th century. It is one of the only Apps of its kind to feature critical works of art from colonial Peru with descriptions and commentary by renowned art historians.

The App is divided into several sections that correspond with recurring themes and iconographies that appear in colonial Peruvian paintings. Moreover, this App also includes special sections that offer an unparalleled glimpse into the splendor of two of the most famous series of paintings produced in colonial Cusco: the fifteen surviving canvases depicting Corpus Christi processions in the late 17th century and the Zodiac Series completed by the renowned indigenous painter Diego Quispe Tito. This book also features some of the lesser-known canvases by the famous Italian émigré artist Bernardo Bitti, who worked in Peru in the late 16th and early 17th century.

The final pages of the App establish thematic continuities among different colonial Andean paintings, including allegories, apocalyptic imagery, the indigenous presence in religious art, and landscapes and the natural world, among others. This App is geared both toward art lovers and researchers alike, in the hopes of paving the way for exciting future scholarship on Peru’s rich and stunning artistic patrimony.