Attributed to Diego Quispe

Attributed to DIEGO QUISPE TITO (Cuzco, Peru, 1611 - 1681)
"Saint Anthony with Child.
Oil on canvas.
Presents faults in the frame with old moldings.
Measurements: 57 x 44 cm; 70 x 55 cm (frame).
In this canvas is represented Saint Anthony of Padua, dressed with Franciscan habit and with the branch of lily, with the Child Jesus in his arms that carries the orb in one of his hands, while with the other one he blesses the spectator. St. Anthony of Padua is, after St. Francis of Assisi, the most popular of the Franciscan saints. He is represented as a beardless young man with a broad monastic tonsure, dressed in the brown habit of the Franciscans. One of his most frequent attributes is the book, which identifies him as a sacred writer. Another distinctive iconographic feature is the branch of lily, an element taken from his panegyrist Bernardino de Siena. St. Anthony is usually presented with the Child Jesus, in allusion to an apparition he had in his cell. It became the most popular attribute of this saint from the 16th century onwards, being especially popular in the Baroque art of the Counter-Reformation.
Diego Quispe Tito was a Peruvian painter of Andean origin. He is considered one of the most outstanding members of the Cuzco School. The documentary testimonies regarding his life are scarce, however, it can be said that he began his pictorial work around 1627, date of which dates his first canvas and probably belonged to the indigenous nobility. He established himself as an artist of great prestige in the city of Cusco from the 1660s, when he intensified his production for the temple of San Sebastian. It is from the virtuosity he demonstrates in the painting cycles he produces for this temple that he wins the favor of his most important patrons in Cuzco and Upper Peru, where he regularly sent paintings. In a painting he sent to Potosí in 1667 he signed "Quispi Tito inga inbentó del año D-1667, edad 56", a way of highlighting the creative and cultured aspect of his work. He was a follower of Gregorio Gamarra, who in turn was a disciple of father Bernardo Bitti. His painting had two stages. In the first, his painting was characterized by certain traces of Mannerism, while in the second, the influence of Flemish engravings can be seen in his painting. However, he is a painter who is somewhat outside the prevailing style in the city of Cuzco and who ends up developing and imposing a new style to the painting of the region. He implants the use of large landscapes full of flowers and animals that later become characteristic of Cuzco painting.