Portrait of a Peruvian Lady with Fan

Although clearly a representation of an individual, Portrait of a Peruvian Lady with Fan is also a portrait of a society and the times in which she lived. Everything in this sumptuous composition presents a window into the eighteenth-century Viceroyalty of Peru. The work exhibits the sophisticated technique characteristic of a painter working in one of Cuzco’s numerous workshops who would have studied under a talented native master or perhaps an accomplished Spanish artist who had come to the New World. It also reveals what a successful and affluent patron could desire and afford for his wife or daughter, or to adorn his home. The portrait conveys wealth, power and the status it conferred upon someone in one of the many thriving cities of the New World. The Spanish Empire was the first truly global power due to its unchallenged and enviable global position, further strengthened by its trade in desirable goods. The New World was Spain's direct source for both Asian and American commodities such as vanilla and other spices from Indonesia; dazzling textiles from Coromandel and Bengal; pearls from Persia; silk, porcelain, and fans from China like the one this lovely lady delicately holds; and other goods from the East. These were shipped across the Pacific from Manila to Acapulco, then carried overland to Veracruz, and finally coupled with commodities from the New World, such as gold and silver ingots; emeralds from Santa Fé, now Colombia; cochineal (a source for red dye used to create the luminous red color of this sitter’s fashionable attire); tobacco from Havana; and other desired items from these faraway lands. [1]

The aristocratic woman stands on a tiled floor that kept her home cool in the summer in front of a velvet drape, a painterly convention used to evoke the timeless and formal quality of portraiture. An Andean mountainous landscape may be seen through the small window behind her. Perhaps her family’s great fortune derived from the silver mines is depicted in this landscape. Her costly jewels of gold and silver with diamonds and precious stones adorning her neck, and the open jewelry case lined in red satin with another diamond suite and gold chains on the nearby table, all signify her family’s prominence. With her left hand, she clasps a small cloth with an embroidered red pattern, a cumbi, the Quechua word for a finely woven cloth made from the highest quality alpaca fibers. Cumbi was a luxury textile in the Inca Empire, whose production was heavily controlled and limited to the ruling class. Yet the popularity of this tradition persisted. [2] Her stunning dress and cap, decorated in an eclectic combination of both fine and imported lace, and extensively patterned panels resembling feathers, denotes a local flavor, which although influenced by European tastes, are specimens of Andean fashion and creativity, and ultimately, emblematic of her social prestige.

Margarita Aguilar, Doctoral Candidate, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

1 B. E. Hamann, “The Mirrors of Las Meninas: Cochineal, Silver, and Clay.” The Art Bulletin, vol. 92, no. 1/2, 2010, 6–35.
2 E. Phipps, “Cumbi to Tapestry: Collection, Innovation, and Transformation of the Colonial Andean Tapestry Tradition.” In The Colonial Andes Tapestry and Silverwork, 1530-1830, edited by Phipps, Johanna Hecht, and Cristina Esteras Martín, 72-99. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.