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Lot Essay
The seventeenth century saw a wiser and kinder attitude by the religious orders in the Vice-Royalty of Peru such as the Franciscans, Augustinians and Dominicans towards religious conversion of the native peoples. A more progressive implementation of Catholic concepts that coincided with indigenous feasts, celebrations, and customs, proved a tolerant strategy in persuading the indigenous people to embrace Christianity. The figure of a celestial being or “angel” was one of the primary iconographies that were easily accepted as the native population adopted this heavenly soldier. [1] Equally important, the local native leaders identified with these beings as they too did battle and recognized aspects of their manner of dress and form as valiant warriors.[2]
The arquebus was used as early as 1472 by the Spanish and Portuguese and became the weapon of choice for the Habsburg armies throughout Europe shortly after.[3] The extraordinary depiction of ángeles arcabuceros or angels bearing muskets or “arquebuses” rather than swords, flourished in the city of Cuzco and the Altiplano region of Calamarca. Cuzco was perhaps one of the most dynamic and busiest centers of artistic production in the Spanish empire. There are numerous records detailing the workshops that thrived during the eighteenth century and employed foreign and local artisans, apprentices and others that were engaged in the creation of religious paintings, sculptures and decoration for churches, convents and monasteries. Evangelization fueled this manufacture and consumption of sacred images and objects.
The grouping of angels or series such as the following lots was inherited from the Spanish city of Seville where Zurbarán and his disciples produced cycles that artists working in the Spanish colonial regions would become familiar with through the works that left the busy port city in Spain.[4] In the Church’s militant Counter Reformation ideology the angels were God’s army and defenders of the faith. These stunning winged creatures are robed in flowing bright silk archaic tunics and robes decorated with Baroque sashes and bows; their gold and silver helmets are adorned with extravagant plumage and ermine. Their formidable weapons inspire valor and heroism. The cartouches shown at their feet resemble shields and have painted emblems that reveal their individual attributes such as the red rose of martyrdom; the lily which is a symbol of peace but also of purity and others that are related to Christ such as the staff of wheat; the crescent moon which denotes the Virgin Mary’s chastity; the well as signifying the Word or truth itself; and the mirror for beholding the magnificence of God and through which Christians too reflect His splendor and thus attain everlasting glory. These symbols reinforced and conveyed the Church’s doctrines in a potent visual manner and supported the conversion of souls in Spanish America.
1 O. A. Hernandez Ying. (2009). Angels in the Americas: Paintings of Apocryphal Angels in Spain and its American Viceroyalties (Order No. 3378951). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (304859755). Retrieved from https://ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/docview/304859755?accountid=7287, accessed on April 15, 2018.
2 Hernandez Ying, 192.
3 J. R. Partington, A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999, 123.
4 Ibid, 207.
The arquebus was used as early as 1472 by the Spanish and Portuguese and became the weapon of choice for the Habsburg armies throughout Europe shortly after.[3] The extraordinary depiction of ángeles arcabuceros or angels bearing muskets or “arquebuses” rather than swords, flourished in the city of Cuzco and the Altiplano region of Calamarca. Cuzco was perhaps one of the most dynamic and busiest centers of artistic production in the Spanish empire. There are numerous records detailing the workshops that thrived during the eighteenth century and employed foreign and local artisans, apprentices and others that were engaged in the creation of religious paintings, sculptures and decoration for churches, convents and monasteries. Evangelization fueled this manufacture and consumption of sacred images and objects.
The grouping of angels or series such as the following lots was inherited from the Spanish city of Seville where Zurbarán and his disciples produced cycles that artists working in the Spanish colonial regions would become familiar with through the works that left the busy port city in Spain.[4] In the Church’s militant Counter Reformation ideology the angels were God’s army and defenders of the faith. These stunning winged creatures are robed in flowing bright silk archaic tunics and robes decorated with Baroque sashes and bows; their gold and silver helmets are adorned with extravagant plumage and ermine. Their formidable weapons inspire valor and heroism. The cartouches shown at their feet resemble shields and have painted emblems that reveal their individual attributes such as the red rose of martyrdom; the lily which is a symbol of peace but also of purity and others that are related to Christ such as the staff of wheat; the crescent moon which denotes the Virgin Mary’s chastity; the well as signifying the Word or truth itself; and the mirror for beholding the magnificence of God and through which Christians too reflect His splendor and thus attain everlasting glory. These symbols reinforced and conveyed the Church’s doctrines in a potent visual manner and supported the conversion of souls in Spanish America.
1 O. A. Hernandez Ying. (2009). Angels in the Americas: Paintings of Apocryphal Angels in Spain and its American Viceroyalties (Order No. 3378951). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (304859755). Retrieved from https://ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/docview/304859755?accountid=7287, accessed on April 15, 2018.
2 Hernandez Ying, 192.
3 J. R. Partington, A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999, 123.
4 Ibid, 207.