Ricardo Nieto Peruvian Fine Art oil painting

The "Cusco School" is named for the city of Cusco (Perú), the ancient capital of the Incan Empire. It specializes in pictorial images of Virgins, Saints, Archangels and other religious figures. It was responsible for the spread of an aesthetic expression across the entire Andean area, reflecting the society at the time of the viceroyship, when Perú was a principal Spanish colony.

Even though Cusco artists were painting and producing years before, it is considered that the Cusco School as such, dates back to 1650, when an earthquake destroyed many churches and monasteries in the city, and the following rebuilding process gave local artisans a wonderful opportunity to develop their talents and display their works. Native painters gradually moved away from the purely European style and, mixing the religious with the naïf Andean imaginary, created paintings of unique beauty and great originality that turned into a popular form: The Virgin, alone or with the Child, Cusco Madonnas, Harquebusiers - sumptuously dressed Archangels, armed as soldiers of Heaven, the Holy family, the Virgin as a child, Saint Michael the Archangel, etc.

Three European centers contributed principally to the development of Cusco painting: Spain, Italy and Flanders. The earliest period (16th - 17th centuries) demonstrates the influence of the Spanish masters. Zurbaran, Illescas and Ocana in Lima, and their followers Loyola and Loayza in Cusco, represent the Seville and Madrid schools. The works of the Italian masters, with their prestige and quality, stamped the mannerist period of Perúvian painting in general and the "Cusco School" in particular (mannerism was the attempt to humanize classicism by introducing sentiment into composition). Their style marked an artistic creation in Cusqueno painting from the late sixteenth until well into the seventeenth century. Angelino Medoro, Mateo Perez de Alessio and Bernardo Bitti monopolized the demand and taste of viceroys and bishops. Bitti, a first-rate mannerist and Jesuit brother, began working in Cusco in 1583. He became progressively Americanized. His influence reached Diego Quispe Tito, the most remarkable painter of the epoch. Tito represents the transition from imitation to freedom in personal expression. His chief inspiration has been shown to be Flemish engravings; Flanders, at that time, was part of the Spanish empire.

Fernando & Annie Nieto