Our Lady of Guápulo

Guápulo is a shrine town in the hills outside Quito, Ecuador — geographically outside the city of Cusco proper, but squarely inside the visual language the Cusco workshops exported across the viceroyalty. That reach is the story here: a "Cusco School" painting is defined by technique and iconography, not by where the canvas physically hung. Like the Cocharcas Virgin, this is a portrait of a specific miracle-working statue rather than a generic Madonna — pilgrims who had seen the real image in Guápulo would have recognized her exact crown, her exact stance, her exact mantle pattern, reproduced here in oil and gold leaf for a private household altar or a distant chapel. The mantle's geometric gold tooling is a signature of the mature Cusco style — repeating, almost textile-like patterning worked directly into wet paint.

Maker

Peruvian (Cuzco) painter

Date

18th century

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-00148