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Lot Essay
Although imported from Spain, the so-called “sculpture painting” genre or paintings of Christian statues, especially the Virgin Mary, became popular beginning in the middle of the seventeenth century from the workshops of painters of the Cuzco and Andean region.1 The large number of European prints available since the 1600s was also a factor in the proliferation of such images. These large compositions depict carved figures of the Blessed Virgin on a church altar or under a canopy, surrounded by candles in shimmering golden splendor. Their strict symmetry, rich colors and vibrant patterning in these unusual paintings, aided the devotee in veneration whether in a public space or at home. The present painting of the Nuestra Señora de Copacabana, also known as the Virgin of Candlemas or Candelaria, is a splendid example of this unusual rendering of holy sculptures. The innovative Andean painters, however, re-invented the genre in their numerous interpretations as the figure of the Holy Virgin is often animated through subtle facial expressions.
Located on the shores of Lake Titicaca, Copacabana is a municipality in modern-day Bolivia. The lake was a sacred site to the Aymara who preceded and influenced the Inca who conquered them. They revered it as being the home of the Sun and the Moon and held ancient myths about a creator, and other spirits as part of their spiritual beliefs. As part of their evangelization, the Christian friars who arrived with the Spanish, built churches and monasteries throughout the Altiplano and a small church devoted to the Virgin of Copacabana, was built in this area in 1583. The cult to the Virgin spread throughout the Andean regions but also to Spain where the playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca was inspired to write La aurora de Copacabana with a cast that included the Pizarro brothers and Francisco Tito Yupanqui, a descendant of Inca ruler Huayna Capac, and is said to have carved a sculpture of the Virgin.2
This monumental composition is replete with didactic vignettes which served to instruct the would-be converts. In the upper registers, a procession of the sculpture of the Virgin appears on the left and a scene on the shores of Lake Titicaca with merchants and their wares is noted on the right. The Virgin floats on a cloud reaching out to a kneeling man on the lower right, perhaps the donor who commissioned the painting; on the left, she stands before a seated Christ who holds a large cross perhaps referring to the Cross of Carabuco myth which tells of the Apostle Bartholomew bringing the Holy Cross to the Andes. The holy figures of the Virgin and Child are resplendent in the finest brocades trimmed in lace within a carved niche flanked by Solomonic columns and decorative scrolls which emphasize their divinity. The Virgin wears precious jewels and a crown as befitting the Queen of Heaven.
Margarita J. Aguilar, Art Historian
Located on the shores of Lake Titicaca, Copacabana is a municipality in modern-day Bolivia. The lake was a sacred site to the Aymara who preceded and influenced the Inca who conquered them. They revered it as being the home of the Sun and the Moon and held ancient myths about a creator, and other spirits as part of their spiritual beliefs. As part of their evangelization, the Christian friars who arrived with the Spanish, built churches and monasteries throughout the Altiplano and a small church devoted to the Virgin of Copacabana, was built in this area in 1583. The cult to the Virgin spread throughout the Andean regions but also to Spain where the playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca was inspired to write La aurora de Copacabana with a cast that included the Pizarro brothers and Francisco Tito Yupanqui, a descendant of Inca ruler Huayna Capac, and is said to have carved a sculpture of the Virgin.2
This monumental composition is replete with didactic vignettes which served to instruct the would-be converts. In the upper registers, a procession of the sculpture of the Virgin appears on the left and a scene on the shores of Lake Titicaca with merchants and their wares is noted on the right. The Virgin floats on a cloud reaching out to a kneeling man on the lower right, perhaps the donor who commissioned the painting; on the left, she stands before a seated Christ who holds a large cross perhaps referring to the Cross of Carabuco myth which tells of the Apostle Bartholomew bringing the Holy Cross to the Andes. The holy figures of the Virgin and Child are resplendent in the finest brocades trimmed in lace within a carved niche flanked by Solomonic columns and decorative scrolls which emphasize their divinity. The Virgin wears precious jewels and a crown as befitting the Queen of Heaven.
Margarita J. Aguilar, Art Historian