Viceroyalty school, XVIII century.

Viceroyalty school, XVIII century.
"Virgin of La Merced".
Oil on canvas.
It has slight wear on the pictorial surface.
Measurements: 54 x 38 cm; 60,5 x 44 cm (frame).

Devotional painting of viceroyalty, probably from Cuzco. The Virgin of entire body adopts the welcoming gesture of opening her arms to the world. It occupies a large part of the frame. She wears a white mantle supported by two angels flanking her, as do the pair of saints arranged in the lower part, respecting the compositional symmetry. We recognize the Virgin of Mercy by the scapular and the trap that she holds in her hands. From this we can interpret that one of the saints is Saint Peter Nolasco, founder of the Order of Mercy.

It is a work typical of the novo-Hispanic art, determined by the subtlety and harmony of the whole. It is worth mentioning that, during the Spanish colonial domination, a mainly religious painting was developed, destined to Christianize the indigenous peoples. The local painters were modeled on Spanish works, which they followed literally in terms of types and iconography. The most frequent models were the harquebusier angels and the triangular virgins, however, in the first years of the 19th century, already in times of independence and political opening of some of the colonies, several artists began to represent a new model of painting with its own identity.