Our Lady of Bethlehem with Portrait of an Indigenous Donor

Gallery Text

Nuestra Señora de Belén is one of the patron saints of the city of Cuzco, Peru. This painted representation is based on a famous sculpture that is paraded through the streets of Cuzco on the feast of Corpus Christi. After celebrations, the statue is returned to its niche above the altar at the Convent of Santa Clara, a lay community founded in 1549 for the education and protection of young women of mestizo (Indigenous and European) ancestry.

Though the artist(s) and the donor are unidentified, the scale of the painting and the specificity of the donor’s features speak to the stylistic and technical virtuosity of Roman Catholic painting by and for Indigenous communities in the Andes during colonial rule. The visual language of “Cuzco School” paintings draws equally upon local Indigenous cosmologies, Native expertise in pigments and textiles, and European conventions of pose, gesture, and scale to compose works both sumptuous and didactic.

Identification and Creation

Object Number: TL42611.1
People: Unidentified Artist
Title: Our Lady of Bethlehem with Portrait of an Indigenous Donor
Other Titles: Original Language Title: Nuestra Señora de Belén con un retrato de donante indígena
Classification: Paintings
Work Type: painting
Date: 18th century
Places: Creation Place: South America, Peru, Cuzco
Culture: Peruvian
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/382580

Location

Location: Level 2, Room 2240, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Arts in the Eighteenth–Century Atlantic World

View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Oil and gold on canvas
Dimensions: 243 × 160 cm (95 11/16 × 63 in.)
frame: 267.3 × 185.4 × 6.4 cm (105 1/4 × 73 × 2 1/2 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Collection of Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation
Object Number: TL42611.1
Division: European and American Art
Contact: am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions: The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Exhibition History

32Q: 2240 18th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/06/2024 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Add to Collection

Log in to the Harvard Art Museums

TL42611.1: Our Lady of Bethlehem with Portrait of an Indigenous Donor