Rafael

I saw this at the Portland Art Museum. Its goofy, isn’t it? Here’s the description

 Art from the Andes features distinctive religious paintings that illustrate the creative melding of cultures in the Andes following the Spanish conquest.

There are a lot of these pictures around.

This says: Following the Spanish conquest of the Inka empire in 1532,the native people were obliged to recognize the king of Spain as their ruler and to accept the teachings of the Christian faith. In this illuminating study, author Carol Damina reveals how the artists of post-conquest Cuzco combined European styles of painting and iconography with anciet Peruvian traditions…

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a longer description of the form here, which describes the genre of angels with guns, another European artifact that was introduced to South America at about this time

The pictures look pretty strange to our eyes. The artist followed European styles, including the practice of portraying biblical characters in the dress of the aristocracy. Just, different aristocrats.  Catholic theology was, and is, strange in its own right, in comparison to the life and teachings of Jesus. The Andean picture does not depart any more from biblical sources than something like this

 

 

My own personal favorite depictions of angels are Islamic, at Aya Sophia, in Istanbul.