Basilio De Santa Cruz Puma Callao (1636-1710), Attributed To - The Marriage Of The Virgin

Oil and gold pigments on canvas. Original lining. This magnificent painting, depicting the Marriage of the Virgin, could be attributed to the master Basilio Santa Cruz Pumacallao, given the extraordinary finesse of its execution and its formal balance. The work eloquently demonstrates the transposition of Western artistic models—particularly Flemish engravings and Spanish painting—into the sensibility of the Cusco school, resulting in a unique symbiosis between the European canon and local identity. One perceives the desire for synthesis and pedagogy characteristic of the viceregal period, where the image constituted the principal vehicle of evangelization, presenting dogma with clarity but imbued with a radiant majesty. The mastery of the brocade technique is remarkable: the sacred garments are covered with a dense network of gold, transforming the canvas into a precious surface that evokes both the divinity and the status of the figures. Barely a century after the conquest, this work testifies to the high narrative and compositional quality achieved by the Andean masters. The arrangement of the figures, the restraint of their gestures, and the richness of the architectural details in the background confirm that the painters of Cusco not only assimilated the foreign artistic language in an exemplary syncretism, but also elevated it to a new degree of spiritual and decorative beauty. - Image dimensions without frame: 30 x 38 cm / 36 x 44 cm with an exclusive custom-made frame in antique gold leaf.