Diego Quispe Tito Atelier (Cuzco, Perú, 1611 - 1681)

Diego Quispe Tito Atelier (Cuzco, Peru, 1611 - 1681) Holy Family with St. John Oil on canvas 122,6 x 164,2 cm. A member of a family of the Inca aristocracy, Quispe Tito is considered among the main initiators of the Cuzco school of painting. He apparently came from the indigenous village of San Sebastián, which holds a significant part of his production. Our painting presents a characteristic element that we find in the works of Quispe Tito's workshop such as the parrot. One of the most important works of the painter in the Holy Family returning from Egypt (National Museum of History), dated in 1680, it shows the characteristic virtuosity of his later works. The painter has based himself on a widespread composition by Rubens, but Quispe Tito notably reduces the proportion of the figures with respect to the background, to place the scene of the sacred story within a vast idealized and fantastic landscape, which thus announces the appearance of one of the favorite genres of Cuzco painting in the following century. This painting and the one we present here are very close both stylistically and thematically, since our work shows the episode of the encounter between Jesus and his cousin Saint John on his return from the flight to Egypt. Provenance: - Bill Morgenstern, Miami. - Christie's New York Auction, 'Important Latin American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture', November 24, 1992. Bibliography: - DE MESA J. and GISBERT T.: History of the Painting Cuzqueña I. Lima, 1982, pages 142-160. Exhibitions: - Washington D.C. The Organization of American States, The Art Museum of the Americas, 1991. - Miami, The Historical Museum of Southern Florida, Temples of Gold, Crowns of Silver, January-March 1992, No. 15. - Washington D.C. The 1992 Washington Antiques Show, Spain in the New World-Quincentenary, 1992 (illustrated in the catalog).