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Lot Essay
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the Fundación Guayasamín, signed by Verenice Guayasamín, dated 2 June 2015.
After the famous execution of the last Incan emperor Atahualpa by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, General Rumiñahui was one of the few great indigenous military leaders left standing. Eventually cornered by Pizarro’s troops, Rumiñahui was captured, tortured and executed publically in Quito’s main square. Legend has it that he took to his grave the location of the Treasure of the Llanganatis—the supposed enormous trove of gold that he buried in the Ecuadorian mountains after learning of Atahualpa’s death. To this day the whereabouts of the lost Incan gold remain unknown.
Guayasamín portrays Rumiñahui as a valiant warrior; standing tall and proud against a stormy sky, which may foretell his imminent demise, he dwarfs the mountains, perhaps the Llanganatis, behind him. With his rippling muscled flesh and spear in hand, which would of course prove no defense against the guns and foreign diseases that Pizarro's men wielded, he appears every inch the fearless fighter he was.
After the famous execution of the last Incan emperor Atahualpa by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, General Rumiñahui was one of the few great indigenous military leaders left standing. Eventually cornered by Pizarro’s troops, Rumiñahui was captured, tortured and executed publically in Quito’s main square. Legend has it that he took to his grave the location of the Treasure of the Llanganatis—the supposed enormous trove of gold that he buried in the Ecuadorian mountains after learning of Atahualpa’s death. To this day the whereabouts of the lost Incan gold remain unknown.
Guayasamín portrays Rumiñahui as a valiant warrior; standing tall and proud against a stormy sky, which may foretell his imminent demise, he dwarfs the mountains, perhaps the Llanganatis, behind him. With his rippling muscled flesh and spear in hand, which would of course prove no defense against the guns and foreign diseases that Pizarro's men wielded, he appears every inch the fearless fighter he was.