Spanish Colonial (Cuzco School)
Saint Barbara
Oil on Relined Canvas
45" H x 36" W
Private collection
The castle tower, and the sword that took her head, are the symbols of St. Barbara.
Saint Barbara is a former Christian saint and virgin
martyr believed to have lived in Asia Minor in the 3rd century. Her story dates
to the 7th century and is retold in the Golden Legend. It is as follows:
Dioscurus, the father of Barbara, was a heartless nobleman who had a tower
built so that he could lock his daughter away to deter suitors. At first the
tower only had two windows; however, Barbara persuaded the workmen to add a
third when her father wasn't looking. She also secretly admitted a priest
disguised as a doctor, who baptized her to become Christian. When her father
returned, Barbara declared that the three windows symbolized the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost who ignited her soul. Dioscurus grew enraged and chased his
daughter who had fled the tower. She hid in the crevice of a rock; however, a
shepherd told her father of her hiding place. Once found, Barbara was dragged
out by the hair and beaten by her father who next handed her over to the Roman
authorities. She refused to renounce her Christian beliefs and was tortured.
Miraculously, at the moment of her execution by her father's sword, he was
struck by lightning, his body devoured by fire. More on Saint
Barbara
The Cuzco School (Escuela Cuzquena) was a Roman Catholic artistic tradition which
originated following the 1534 Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire and continued
during the Colonial Period in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth
centuries. Though based in Cusco, Peru (the former capital of the Inca Empire),
the Cuzco School extended to other cities of the Andes, present day Bolivia,
and Ecuador. Today it is regarded as the first artistic center that taught
European visual art techniques in the Americas. The primary intention of Cuzco
School paintings was to be didactic. Hoping to convert the Incas to
Catholicism, the Spanish sent religious artists to Cusco who created a school
for the Quechua peoples and mestizos. Interestingly, Cusquena art was created
by the indigenous as well as Spanish creoles. In addition to religious
subjects, the Cuzco School expressed their cultural pride with paintings of
Inca monarchs. Despite the fact that Cuzco School painters had studied prints
of Flemish, Byzantine, and Italian Renaissance art, these artists' style and
techniques were generally freer than that of their European models. More on The Cuzco School
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Art, Portrait of a Lady, The
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