Attributed to Basilio Santa Cruz Pumacallao (Cuzco, Peru, 1635 - 1710) 'Salome with the head of John the Baptist.' Oil on wood. Reinforced. 72 x 58 cm. In our scene, Salome asks for the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter. An angel crowns her martyrdom with glory. Basilio de Santa Cruz Pumacallao, along with Diego Quispe Tito, dominated the artistic panorama during the last quarter of the 17th century of the Cuzco school. Its most relevant patron was Bishop Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo (1673-1699), a Spanish cleric who arrived in Cuzco in 1673.As indicated by the Royal Academy of History, Pumacallao was an: “Active painter in Cuzco in the second half of the 17th century.  He was an indigenous painter considered to be among the founders of the Cuzco school. Like Quispe Tito and other painters of his time, Santa Cruz was a member of the Inca aristocracy. His career began around 1661, when the Franciscans of Cuzco commissioned him to paint twelve angels and an equal number of Madonnas for their church, paintings that are now lost.'