Saint Bonaventure and Saint Anthony of Padua

Most Cusco School painting left no signature — it was produced by workshops, sold through dealers, and attributed by style rather than name. This small canvas is a documented exception: it is attributed to Basilio Santa Cruz Pumacallao, a contemporary of Diego Quispe Tito and one of the small handful of Cusco painters whose individual hand art historians can actually track across multiple works. The two Franciscan saints — Bonaventure, the theologian-cardinal, and Anthony of Padua, shown here with the Christ child he was famously said to have held in a vision — are rendered with a controlled, almost miniature intimacy that fits the painting's small scale; this was likely made for private devotion rather than a church wall. A named hand, in a tradition mostly defined by its anonymity — that alone makes this worth close attention.

Maker

Basilio Santa Cruz Pumacallao

Date

c. 1670–90

Medium of the original

Oil on canvas

Original held by

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York — The American Wing

Credit

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York — The American Wing

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00162