Unnamed Fresco from the Church of San Antonio Abad

This painting is featured in the entryway of the Church of San Antonio Abad in Cusco, Peru on the grounds of the Monasterio. The painting is the product of a student from the Escuela Cusqueña, which was the Cusco School of Art between 1678 and 1699. I wanted to begin my exploration of Christian-inspired art with this fresco and this category in general because of how surprisingly unconventional I found the Latin American art to be. South America was colonized by the Spanish and Portuguese for the most part and therefore were strongly influenced by the Roman Catholicism that accompanied these two nations; to this day much of South America's culture is deeply rooted in the Catholic faith.

I chose this fresco because the image of Jesus on the cross is one that is central to modern Christianity and this was an interesting interpretation of the crucifixion. To begin, the cross is covered in what appear to be very classic Latin American flowers. Next, while many paintings of this scene show Jesus in very little clothes, or naked, here he is shown in a much fuller skirt, typical of a more Latin style. Finally, I found it very intriguing that Jesus is definitively darker than the people watching him. It's almost as though Jesus is Hispanic and the people watching him are Caucasian. I want to look into the significance of this fusion of western religion and Latin style later.