This masterpiece of Peruvian viceregal painting was made in the late 17th or early 18th century in one of the Indigenous workshops that proliferated in Cusco after the Inca painters declared their independence from the European-led painters’ guild.
The composition mimics the illusionistic recessed space of an architectural niche flanked by opulent curtains that open to reveal a miraculous devotional sculpture of Christ’s first fall on his way to Calvary.
Commonly known to local Cusqueños as El Señor del Cabildo, the articulated sculpture is venerated as the tutelary protector of the city alongside Taytacha Temblores, or the Lord of the Earthquakes, a crucified Christ associated with Wiracocha, the Inca telluric creator god…