ÉCOLE D'AMERIQUE DU SUD (BOLIVIE - PÉROU), DE LA FIN DU XVIIIE SIÈCLE OU DU DÉBUT DU XIXE SIÈCLE

Portraits of eleven Inca Emperors Portrait of Francisco Pizarro Twelve paintings, on their original canvases. H_25 cm W_18 cm (each) the twelve Report of analysis of the Laboratory M.S.M.A.P. sarl, of 14.04.2021: - The fibres composing the textile support are of two types: cotton and woody fibres (hemp ? ramie ? ...). - A grey-beige preparation was applied to the textile support. This preparation layer is characterized by the use of wood ash. - The use of wood ash in the preparation of the paintings is considered specific to the Spanish school for the Baroque period (Centeno, S.A. et al, 2020). - This feature is also found in the colonial paintings of South America, under the influence of the Spanish school. - A red primer based on red ochre was applied to the preparation. The use of colored primers is characteristic of European paintings in the 17th and 18th centuries. - Among the pigments used in the paint layers, the following have been identified: lead white; orpiment; cinnabar or dry vermilion; red ochre; charcoal black; red iron oxide; Prussian blue - No pigments with a date of appearance after the 18th century have been identified in the paint layers studied. - The pigments identified are present in the palette of colonial painting in South America in the 18th century. The eleven portraits of the Inca kings represent the kings of Cuzco who reigned from 1226 to 1533, the date of the death of Huascar Inca XIII, linked to the arrival of the Spanish in Peru, the last emperor of the independent Inca Empire. The years of existence and reign of Manco Cápac, the first king of Cuzco, are the subject of doubts and debates among historians, almost as much as whether he is a historical or mythical character. The dates given by the various studies even vary by several centuries. According to Cabello Balboa (in 1586), Manco Cápac ruled between 945 and 1006, for 61 years. Other sources mention 41 years of reign, between 1021 and 1062. According to other historians, he ruled for 28 years, between 1150 and 1178. The latest dates speak of 30 years of reign between 1226 and 1256. If the first accounts and traces of the first Inca kings remain vague, their descendants are more certain and detailed*. It was at the same time as the arrival of the colonists in Peru in the 16th century that painting on canvas appeared, and was quickly used as a powerful instrument for the evangelization of the Indian peoples in what would become the Vice Kingdom of Peru, and the whole of America. The Spaniards founded the city of San Miguel de Piura on August 15, 1532, the first Spanish city founded in Peru. In 1542, Spain created the Viceroyalty of New Castile, which soon after was recognized as the Viceroyalty of Peru. It was organized with the arrival of Viceroy Francisco de Toledo in 1572. The Viceroyalty of Peru was governed by forty viceroys, from 1542 until 1821. It is in this context that the portraits of the kings and the Inca roots Inca roots were represented and imposed at the beginning of the XVIIIth century. In Lima, the centre of political power, the Inca revival expressed the aspirations of the indigenous elite living in the new capital. Its most important manifestation is the genealogical representation of the Incas, followed in a harmonious way by that of the Spanish kings. This shows the will of the Jesuits to link the Spaniards to the Incas. The rivalries between the Spanish and Indian nobility led the latter to commission paintings representing their Inca royal ancestors, full-length or in bust, from Manco Cápac and his wives Mama Huaco and Mama Ocllo, to Atahualpa. Soon the Spanish kings were added to the series of Inca kings to show that they were the successors of the first. The portraits of the kings of Cuzco constitute a set of images and symbols expressing the expectation of the reconstruction of the old order, latent in a large part of the indigenous population from the end of the 17th century. The composition of the Inca busts on the same plane and in chronological order originates from an engraving by a Lima Creole cleric, Alonso de la Cueva Ponce de León, member of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri. This engraving created between 1724 and 1728 presents the kings of Cuzco in charge of the government of these lands. The upper part of the engraving is occupied by the following elements: in the centre, a representation of Christ the King flanked by two coats of arms, one corresponding to Spain and the other to Tawantinsuyu; further out, a text with a title, EFIGIES DE LOS INGAS, O REYS del PERV con su Origen y Serie Y de los Catholicos Reyes de Ca