Attributed to Diego Quispe Tito (Cuzco, Perú, 1611 - 1681) “The Baptism of Christ” Oil on canvas. 142 x 94 cm. Attributed to Diego Quispe Tito (Cuzco, Peru, 1611 – 1681) “The Baptism of Christ” Oil on canvas. 142 x 94 cm. Important representation of the Baptism of Christ belonging to the sphere of the great Cuzco School of the 17th century, attributed to Diego Quispe Tito, a fundamental figure in the consolidation of Andean viceregal painting and one of the foremost masters of colonial Hispanic American art. The scene depicts the moment in which Saint John the Baptist pours the waters of the Jordan over Christ, who appears kneeling in an attitude of humility and spiritual recollection. Above them opens a celestial glory filled with radiant light, at whose center descends the dove of the Holy Spirit, thus completing the Trinitarian manifestation characteristic of Christian baptismal iconography. The composition presents several elements particularly close to the pictorial language of Diego Quispe Tito and of the early Cuzco School: the prominence granted to the landscape, the meticulously rendered vegetation, the chromatic intensity of the reds and deep greens, and the poetic atmosphere enveloping the entire scene. Particularly significant is the naturalistic delicacy of the trees and the refined treatment of the mountainous background, aspects deeply connected to the landscape sensibility developed by Quispe Tito through the influence of Flemish models and European engravings. The figure of Saint John the Baptist, draped in a broad red mantle of striking visual presence, introduces a strong diagonal axis that structures the composition and directs the viewer’s gaze toward the divine apparition. Christ, represented with serene frontality and softly idealized anatomy, conveys a restrained and contemplative spirituality characteristic of early viceregal religious painting. Equally remarkable is the banner bearing the cross and flowing red standard, a traditional attribute of Saint John the Baptist, which adds symbolic verticality to the scene while reinforcing the triumphant and salvific character of the Gospel episode. The luminous presence of the Holy Spirit, surrounded by a vaporous and radiant glory, creates a celestial focal point of profound devotional intensity. Diego Quispe Tito was one of the first great Indigenous masters of the Viceroyalty of Peru and played an essential role in defining a distinctly Andean pictorial language capable of fusing European influences with a uniquely American sensibility. His work is characterized by decorative richness, meticulous attention to nature, and an extraordinary narrative and spiritual sensitivity. The present painting constitutes a remarkable example of the early Cuzco School and of the profound assimilation of European models reinterpreted through the Andean artistic imagination. Through its pictorial quality, spiritual intensity, and refined landscape treatment, this work stands out as a magnificent testimony to the development of Peruvian viceregal painting in the 17th century. As recorded by the Royal Academy of History, Quispe Tito, “a member of a family from the Inca aristocracy, is considered one of the principal founders of the Cuzco School of painting. He appears to have come from the Indigenous town of San Sebastián, where a significant portion of his body of work is preserved. His production focused on the decorative paintings for the parish church in that locality, on which he worked extensively between 1634 and 1669. During those years, he completed four major pictorial cycles: The Life of Saint John the Baptist, The Passion, The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, and The Doctors of the Church. These series of canvases showcase Quispe Tito’s distinctive artistic maturity, marked by a clever reinterpretation of European engravings and a precise, agile brushwork rendered in vivid colours. His fame soon spread beyond the confines of Cuzco, and by 1667 he had been commissioned by churches in Potosí to produce Christ among the Doctors in the Temple and The Betrothal of the Virgin, both now kept at the Museo de la Casa de Moneda in Potosi. Within the Inca capital itself, Quispe Tito’s most ambitious work is the canvas of The Last Judgement, painted in 1675 for the entrance hall of the Convent of San Francisco. In this work, the Andean painter abandons the dynamic compositions typically used for portrayals of the Last Judgement, current from the High Renaissance through to the early European Baroque, and instead revives the ordered composition of successive horizontal tiers, common among medieval painters.” “In The Holy Family Returning from Egypt (National Museum of History, Cusco), dated 1680, the technical mastery characteristic of his later work is clearly evident. The composition is based on a widely circulated version by Rubens, but Quispe Tito significantly reduces the scale of the figures in relation to the background, situating the sacred narrative within an expansive, fantastical and idealised landscape—thus heralding the emergence of one of the favourite genres of Cuzco painting in the following century. At the same time, he was also working on his well-known Zodiac series, now displayed on the walls of the side aisles of Cuzco Cathedral. Today, only nine of the twelve signs survive—either because three were lost or destroyed, or because the artist died before completing the commission. This is a Christianised cycle, in which each zodiacal symbol is associated with a parable of Christ or a story from the Gospels. In this case, Quispe closely follows his Flemish graphic sources, while at the same time demonstrating a European-inspired artistic technique of such high calibre that it remains unsurpassed within the Cuzco context. In this final stage of his life, the artist appears to have adapted his work to suit the aesthetic preferences of an urban and cultured clientele—possibly drawing the attention of Bishop Mollinedo and his cathedral chapter.” Bibliography: - Wuffarden, Luis Eduardo. (s.f.). 'Diego Quispe Tito'. https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/54757/diego-quispe-tito