Tuesday, April 29, 2025

The Virgin and Child in Art: from the West to the Andes

        The Virgin and Child are among the most common subjects in Western art. From Byzantine period cathedrals to household nativity sets, many viewers have expansive visual archives for these subjects. When the Spanish colonizers came to Latin America they sought to convert the natives to Roman Catholicism, often using art as a tool for conversion. Although Latin American artists learned to use European techniques and subject matter, the artists made deliberate stylistic choices that uniquely differentiate their art from that of Europe. Indigenous artists of the Andes mountains often used Incan religious symbols to appropriate the colonizers’ Catholicism into their context. Scholars continue to debate whether Indigenous artists used these symbols subversively to continue worshipping their Incan deities or whether they simply sought to contextualize a new religion using imagery familiar to their audience.      

           Regardless of the artists’ motive, the Andean and European art of the Virgin and Child differ significantly based on their locations and contexts. Since artists have painted these popular subjects for centuries, this exhibit includes only selections from the 17th and 18th centuries. It seeks to place these Andean artworks side by side with European artworks to understand how their specific locations and cultures have influenced the artists’ distinct portrayals of these familiar subjects. Placing a Flemish, Spanish, and French artist alongside three artists from the Cusco School of Art, this exhibit invites viewers to notice the differences and similarities. What makes the Andean Virgin distinct from its European counterpart? Even among Peruvian artists, why do feathers and birds appear in some paintings but not all? How do Peruvian artists use similar Virgin iconography? Ultimately, this exhibit invites the viewer to disentangle the cultural symbols present in all religious art by studying the Virgin and Child of the Andean culture side by side with Western portrayals of these religious subjects. 


Virgin and Child

Bartolomé Estebán Murillo

 1670s

Oil on canvas

The MET, No. 43.13


    Bartolomé Estebán Murillo, a prominent Spanish artist, depicts the Virgin and Child in an intimate, human manner that contrasts with other divine-like portrayals of these subjects. He reflects the classical Western tradition of painting naturalistic bodies with anatomical proportions. While not as thin as Phidian drapery, Murillo emphasizes the curves of Mary’s body under the weight of the fabric and harkens back to classicism’s loose drapery over Jesus’s body. The dark background contrasted with the illuminated figures hints at the chiaroscuro style of previous European painters.





 Our Lady of Mercy, called ‘The Pilgrim of Quito’ 

Unknown

1730-40

Oil and gold on canvas

The MET, No. 2018.652.4


This unknown Peruvian artist depicts a famous Andean virgin statue, who supposedly performed miracles throughout her pilgrimage to fundraise for church building projects. Native artists of the Cuzco School of Art often included Andean iconography in their depictions of European religious paintings, especially the Virgin Mary, as a disguise for their traditional beliefs. For example, Mary’s triangular-shaped dress is reminiscent of mountains or Pachamama, the Andean goddess mother-earth. The artist includes feathers and birds as further examples of Incan imagery. While different from European art, the artist depicts Mary and Jesus as European with pale, white skin, showing the European influence on colonial religious art. 





Virgin and Child

Anthony van Dyck

1620

Oil on wood

The MET, No. 51.33.1


Flemish artist, Anthony Van Dyck, borrows heavily from classicism with his use of chiaroscuro and phidian-style drapery. Classical artists often showed drapery sensually slipping off the body, however, van Dyck uses this technique to humanize Mary as a nursing mother, with baby Jesus’s hand covering her breast in the same way classical women’s hands cover their genitals and breasts in the Venus pudica pose. In this way, Van Dyck is referencing classicisim not only in the way he depicts naturalistic, anatomically proportionate bodies, but also in the content and pose he employs.





Our Lady of Valvanera

Unknown

1770-80

Oil and gold on canvas

The MET, No. 2018.652.3


This unknown Peruvian artist paints a specific virgin based on a legend of a miracle-working statue from Northern Spain. He includes the Incan imagery of birds and triangular-shaped dresses reminiscent of Pachamama, and the virgin appears flat and stylized like other depictions of Andean virgins. The artist emphasizes Jesus and Mary’s divine status through their crowns and ornate gold outfits. In many ways, his style reflects European Byzantine iconography including the flatness of the figures and his use of symbols that relay hidden meanings similarly to Byzantine religious art.



Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist and Angels

François Boucher

1765

Oil on canvas

The MET, No. 66.167


Boucher’s Virgin and Child closely aligns with the style of French Rococo painting. Its loose brushstrokes, pastel colors, and leisurely scene feels tranquil and light-hearted. Like other European art, the flowing drapery recalls the classicists’ phidian drapery. While not historically accurate, the luxurious grapes, groomed pet, and drapery reflect French aristocratic values. Western-style cupids hover over the figures of the Virgin and Child. Similarly to its European contemporaries, this painting depicts Mary and Jesus in an intimate, relational fashion, distinct from the sacred style of Byzantine-era paintings.






Our Lady of Cocharcas 

Unknown Cuzco artist

1759

Oil and gold on canvas

The MET, No. 2019.14


This Peruvian artist depicts another story of a virgin statue on a pilgrimage procession. Mary wears the familiar gold, triangular-shaped dress like Pachamama. However, her face turns to the left towards baby Jesus, who normally sits on her right. Like other Andean artists, this artist emphasizes the divinity and transcendence of Mary who wears a crown and dwarfs the ant-like individuals around her. Cupids frame the processional altar, reminding viewers of European classicism. The heavy symbolism of the painting, use of gold, and relative flatness of the figures evoke Byzantine church iconography.




Further Study:

Rojek, Karolina Maria. “La Escuela Cuzqueña: the European influence in Peruvian painting from the 17th and 18th centuries, The University of Wroclaw Vol. 9 (2020).

Brown, Kendall W. Review of The Virgin of the Andes: Art and Ritual in Colonial Cuzco, by Carol Damian. The Hispanic American Historical Review Vol. 76, no. 4 (1996): 790-791.


No comments:

Post a Comment