One of the most important in American Art, began in the town of Cuzco, Peru - a city which was the capital of the Incan Empire and has existed for nine centuries. It spread across all of the Andean area as an aesthetic expression of society in the times of the Viceroyship. During Spanish colonization from the 16th to the 18th centuries, Flemish and Italian as well as Spanish versions of the Madonna, the Saints, and the Crucifixion arrived in the New World. These were used to illustrate with clear and didactic images the preaching of religious sermons.
The Cuzco School's works were painted by the indigenous people of Peru who had been taught by such Spanish masters as Loyola. Two traditions existed simultaneously in painting in Cuzco: that of the indigenous people and that of the Spanish masters influenced by Netherlandish Art and Late Gothic Art. Native painters gradually moved away from the purely European style and created paintings of unique extraordinary beauty and great originality by mixing the religious with the naive and with Andean imagery. This style of painting turned into a popular art form. Some of the most popular representations of this art include "The Virgin Mary", "The Virgin With The Child", "The Cuzco Madonna", "The Holy Family", and sumptuously dressed archangels armed as soldiers of heaven such as "Saint Michael", Saint Raphael" and "Saint Gabriel".
Today, families of Indian and Mestizo artists continue recreating and bringing new riches to this great style of paintings by using their ancestor's techniques, oil on fabric, exquisite gilt, and models which are always the same but never exactly alike. The hallmark of Cuzqueño painting is the application of gold to simulate embroidered designs (brocateado). The best examples of the Cuzco School are found in the Cuzco Cathedral and the Iglesia de la Compania Museo de Arte Religioso en la Cuesta de San Blas.
When Viceroy Toledo reached Cuzco in 1570, he commissioned a series of paintings (destr.) to be sent to Spain, which included depictions of the conquest and capture of Atahuallpa (d 1533) and portraits of the Inca rulers. These works were painted by Indians who had been taught by such Spanish masters as Loyola. From the beginning of Spanish colonization until the end of the 16th century, two currents existed in painting in Cuzco: that of the Spanish masters, influenced by Netherlandish and Late Gothic art; and the indigenous tradition. Both influences persisted simultaneously until Roman Mannerism reached Peru through the work of three Italian painters based in Lima: MATEO PÉREZ DE ALESIO, BERNARDO BITTI and ANGELINO MEDORO. Bitti, a Jesuit, worked in Cuzco with, among others, two disciples of Medoro: the Indian Loayza and the Lima painter Luis de Riaño (b 1596). The influence of Bitti and the popularity of Flemish engravings as inspiration for compositions overwhelmed indigenous art, which was evident only in the drawings in the ?Primer nueva crónica y buen gabierno? (c. 1580?1613) by Guaman Poma de Ayala. Medieval styles were also perpetuated through the work of such monks as Diego de Ocaña, who popularized the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
