Immaculate Conception with Saints

Italian mannerist painter Bernardo Bitti (1548-1610) arrived in Peru in 1575, tasked by Jesuit missionaries with creating images that would spread the evangelical message in the new world. The first European-trained artist to travel from Rome to Peru, Bitti is widely credited with influencing the subsequent generation of painters in the region. Indeed, he traveled throughout the viceroyalty creating artworks for churches and convents, and likely establishing workshops in each center and training others in his technique. Some of the finest examples of the artist's work include The Coronation of the Virgin (c.1575-1583) located inthe Convento de San Pedro in Lima, and Virgin and Child (c.1590) in the Church of La Compañía in Arequipa. The lasting legacy of Bitti’s Italian mannerist style—elongated figures, pastel palette, emphasis on drapery—is evident in the present painting, likely dating to the first half of the 17th century.