User:DelinquoSavvy/Marcos Zapata

Marcos Zapata (c. 1710–1773), also called Marcos Sapaca Inca, was a Peruvian painter, born in Cuzco. He was one of the last members of the Cuzco School, an art center in which Spanish painters taught native students to paint religious works.

Biography
Marcos Zapata (Marcos Sapaca Inca) was a Native master painter from Peru known for combining Christian stories with indigenous culture. The most famous example being The Last Supper (c.1753), which represents the famous New Testament story, but with the incorporation of Andean foods such as Cuy.

Zapata's influential style developed between 1748 and 1773. He is known for his beautiful portraits of the Virgin Mary, almost always surrounded by 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.

Zapata created over 200 paintings during his career. 24 of them portrayed the life of Saint Francis of Assisi for the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin of Santiago, Chile. He painted 50 linen cloths with the Laurentina Litany for the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Cusco. Red and blue were prominent colors in his palette.

He studied and later taught with the Cuzco School where he had a workshop with multiple apprentices working to produce this vast amount of paintings. The themes are primarily Christian subjects meant for churches in Peru and Chile.

Cuzco School
The Cuzco School is apart of an art movement in the seventeenth century a type of art that is the mixture and influence of Spanish and Peruvian culture. The Cuzco School within this set was meant to describe a set of artists, guilds and workshops that all produced this type of artwork stemming from Cuzco. What made it stand out was the vast amount of work that was produced under the names of those were associated with it. Marcos Zapata was in said to be charge during the late eighteenth century.

The Last Supper, c.1753
Currently in the Cuzco Cathedral, it is a large oil painting that is attributed to Marcos Zapata. it differs from other depictions of the last supper by including food on the table that is common in Andean culture. On the table sits a Guinea pig; '''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'''. along with the wine instead being a fermented alcohol known as chicha. Combining aspects of both native culture and European religion was used to create a unique connection for the natives of the region to the new ideas that were being brought in.

Virgen de la Silla with the graduation of the García brothers, c. 1750-1760
188.5 x 155.5 cm, Painted by Zapata with oil on canvas. Commissioned by Alexo and Bernardo García to celebrate their graduation from University of San Antonio Abad. Portraits that reuse a composition to another of Zapata's pieces.

Adoration of the Magi, c. 1760
188 x 50 cm, oil painting that is credited to Marcos Zapata and his workshop. This painting is another example of Christian stories and beliefs infused with Peruvian detail; such as the animals in the background meant to resemble more native creatures to Peru along with gold decoration on items such as cloth. This work was sold at action from June third to June fourth of 2014.

El rey Salomón (King Solomon), c. 1764
207 x 166 cm, oil painting attributed to Marcos Zapata. Notable for it use of Vermillion pigments, uncommon at the time due to the materials used to mix it being rare.

Featuring "Virgen de la Silla with the graduation of the García brothers"

 * Lima Art Museum. September 2015-Present [Art to learn] Portraits: Identity, memory and power
 * Telefónica Foundation Center, Lima. August-October 2007

Featuring "Adoration of the Magi"

 * Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art, September - October 1926
 * "Decorative Arts of Spain and Spanish America," Toledo Museum of Art, November 2-30, 1930
 * "Paintings & Decorative Art of XVI and XVII-Century Peru Collected by Mrs. Frank Freyer," Brooklyn Museum of Art, December 20, 1930 - September 30, 1931
 * Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., 1931-1939
 * "Loan Exhibition of Latin American and Pre-Columbian Art, "Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Michigan, July 7-25, 1939
 * "Three Southern Neighbors - Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia," Newark Museum, April 14-December 31, 1942
 * "The Frank Barrows Freyer Collection of Spanish-Peruvian Paintings," Lowe Art Gallery, University of Miami, November 14, 1961-January 28, 1962
 * "Treasures from Peru: Spanish Colonial Paintings from the School of Cuzco," Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, 1967
 * "The Frank Barrows Freyer Collection of Spanish Peruvian Paintings in the Denver Art Museum," The High Museum of Art, December 7-29, 1969.

The Lima Art Museum
-Colonial and Featured Works

Denver Art Museum
-Latin American Art