Marcos Zapata

Cuzco School, an art center in which Spanish painters taught native students to paint religious works. In the Andean culture of Peru, Cuzco painters merged Christian symbols with indigenous Andean traditions.^[1] Zapata introduced elements from his own lands into his paintings. For instance, his 1753 rendering of the Last Supper shows Jesus and his twelve disciples gathering around a table laid with guinea pig and glasses of chicha. Guinea pigs, native to Peru and a culinary delicacy, play a significant role in Andean culture. They are used in Inca festivals as sacrificial animals, much like how lambs are used in traditional Christian ceremonies.^[2] In the painting, traditional elements like bread and ceremonial cups are joined by native foods such as potato, rocoto relleno, and corn. The blending of Andean culinary tradition with Christianity is a common theme in Cuzco paintings, especially as the painting's background features Christ on the Cross and Mary figures.^[3]

Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Cusco. Red and blue were prominent colors in his palette.^[4]

cherubim. Zapata incorporated allegorical subjects in his Madonnas. Christoph Thomas Scheffler wrote in 1732, that the painter was inspired by prints of the subject. His compositions are didactic, with a relatively simple reading of complex theological concepts.^[4]

Almudena. His majestic representation enjoyed enormous acceptance, judging by the large numbers of copies and variants that circulated in throughout the region. The fame of Zapata widely extended the limits of Cuzco, and its sphere of influence extended through Peru, Chile, and northern Argentina. The art of this teacher was continued in later decades by several of his followers, including Antonio Vilca and Ignacio Chacón.^[4]