Notes on Angels with Guns in Colonial Art Mod 9 done

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  • Paintings of angels with guns:
    • Represented the power of the Spaniards over indigenous people.
    • Offered protection to faithful Christians.
  • Prints from The Exercise of Arms by Jacob de Gheyn:
    • Served as models for military positions and firing guns.
    • Inspired paintings like Asiel Timor Dei.
    • Andean paintings differed by combining local dress and non-realistic military positions.
  • Angel in Asiel Timor Dei:
    • Holds the gun professionally but doesn't hold the trigger or at eye level.
    • Has a serene face, unlike the aggressive soldier in Gheyn's prints.
    • Figure is graceful and recalls the Mannerist style.
  • Dress of angels with guns:
    • Corresponds to Andean aristocrats and Inka royalty.
    • Combines European fashion and indigenous noblemen attire.
    • Overcoat with large balloon-like sleeves was an Andean invention.
    • Excess of textile signifies high social status.
    • Elongated plumed hat symbolizes Inka nobility.
    • Broad-brim hat was in style in France and Holland around 1630.
  • Catholic Counter Reformation:
    • Portrayed the Church as an army and angels as its soldiers.
    • The armed angel in Asiel Timor Dei represented this philosophy.
  • Council of Trent (1545-1563):
    • Condemned all angelic depictions except Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.
    • The ban was unobserved in the Viceroyalty of Peru and Baroque Spain.
  • Angels in royal convents of Las Descalzas Reales and Encarnación in Madrid:
    • Painted by Bartolomé Román in the early seventeenth century.
    • Reproductions sent to the Jesuit Church of San Pedro in Lima, Peru.
  • Paintings of angels also sent to the Monastery of Concepción in Lima by Francisco de Zurbarán's workshop.
  • The Spanish Inquisition later prohibited the cult of angels in the mid-seventeenth century, but depictions of angels still flourished in the "New World."
  • Prints by Jerome Wierix:
    • Depicted the seven archangels (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Jehudiel, Barachiel, Sealtiel).
    • May have circulated throughout the Andes and influenced angelology discourse.
  • European prints were widespread because they were cost-effective.
  • The attire, name, and pose of angels like the one in Asiel Timor Dei separate such angelic depictions from European prints.
  • Catholic teachings: angels explained the spiritual function of the cosmos and could stand in for sacred indigenous beings.
  • The asexual body of the angel in Asiel Timor Dei is consistent with biblical descriptions.
  • Early American images alluded to angels' connection to indigenous sacred planets and natural phenomena.
  • Aymara and Quechua peoples associated the harquebus-bearing angel with Illapa, the Andean deity associated with thunder.
  • Catholic angels were equated with Inka tradition through the myth of the creator god Viracocha and his invisible servants, the beautiful warriors known as huamincas.
  • Latin inscriptions in Asiel Timor Dei:
    • Approximates of the original names of angels.
    • Related to the names of planetary and elemental angels in indigenous religions.
  • Cacique in Parish of San Sebastián canvas:
    • Wears an Inka tunic (uncu) with Spanish costume elements.
    • Includes a sun face to indicate Andean nobility.
    • Crown features a mascapaycha to distinguish his status.
    • Crowns accompanied by feathers, flowers, birds, and rainbows.
    • Mascapaycha features a rainbow topped with a silver globe with feathers and banners, as well as two curiquenque birds.
  • Mascapaycha:
    • An emblem of Inka royalty adopted by caciques during the colonial period.
    • Referenced their descent from previous Inka rulers and implied their legitimate status.
    • Marked the cacique as an Inka elite, yet acted as a sign of difference between him and the Spanish colonizer.
  • Caciques' participation in Corpus Christi processions:
    • Allowed them to bear the emblems of their indigenous heritage while proclaiming their loyalty to the Spanish state.
  • Foreground of the painting:
    • Fourteen people of diverse ethnicities alluding to the heterogeneity among the population of Cuzco.
    • Figures do not appear in Inkaic costume, distanced from the elite cacique because of their lack of status symbols.
    • Onlookers participate only indirectly in the procession.
  • Participation of caciques in Christian festivities:
    • Read as a performance of their "otherness" as distinct from Spanish colonizers.
    • Aided in converting the indigenous populations to Catholicism and strengthening Spanish control.
    • Embodied the pre-Hispanic rulers from whom they claimed to descend.
    • Drew attention to the conflation of Inka and Christian traditions, alluding to both a celebration of indigenous heritage as well as subordination to Spanish dominance.
  • Processional cart:
    • Appears in the center of the painting, featuring a statue of Saint Sebastian.
    • Based on structures used for religious processions in Spain celebrating the festival of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.
    • Resembles ships' hulls and are modified from illustrations in a Spanish festival book.
    • Saint Sebastian, tied to a tree and pierced with arrows, has replaced the Virgin Mary.
  • Inka kuraka:
    • Acts as a standard bearer.
    • Referred to as caciques, local rulers of indigenous descent.
    • Granted privileges (cacicazgos) by the Spaniards and allowed to maintain a position of leadership after the Spanish conquest in the Andes.
    • By the early-seventeenth century, twenty-four caciques held this hereditary office.
    • Required to implement Spanish law among the indigenous population in exchange for their acculturation and adoption into the Spanish hierarchy.
  • Cacique portraits:
    • Sought to authenticate their sitters' political position.
    • Derived from traditional Spanish portraiture.
    • Included panels of text that referenced the subjects' indigenous heritage.
    • Employed elements of traditional Inka costumes to emphasize the caciques' Indian-ness.
    • Depicted wearing tunics that evoke indigenous textiles, as well as crowns that included a mascapaycha.
    • Breeches and long sleeves with lace added as traditional Spanish elements.
  • Archangel with Gun, Asiel Timor Dei:
    • Combines guns, angels, and fashion.
    • Depictions of androgynous, stunningly attired, harquebus-carrying angels were produced from the late-seventeenth century through the nineteenth century in the viceroyalty of Peru.
    • Images were widespread throughout the Andes, in places such as La Paz, Bolivia, and as far as present-day Argentina.
    • Represented celestial, aristocratic, and military beings all at once.
    • Created after the first missionizing period, as Christian missionary orders persistently sought to terminate the practice of pre-Hispanic religions and enforce Catholicism.
  • Harquebus:
    • A firearm with a long barrel created by the Spanish in the mid-fifteenth century.
    • It was the first gun to rest on the shoulder when being fired.