LOT 350
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Lot 350
CUZCO SCHOOL (18th century)
The Three Trinities-circa 1700-1725
Oil on canvas
Unsigned
66.25 inches x 46.25 inches (168.5 x 117.5 cm); contained in a substantial carved and gilt wood frame
Estimate:
$6,000 - 9,000
€ 4,200 - 6,300
The offered painting is most original in its presentation of the three Trinities; the heavenly triune godhead at the uppermost margin by the Virgin Mary and Saints Joachim and Anne; and still another triple arrangement consisting of the Holy Family-- the Virgin May and St. Joseph holding the Christ Child in his arms. The Immaculate Mary stands on the petals of a lily as if she is a newly opened flower, and is connected to the terrestrial zone by shoots emanating from her parents. This vegetative imagery must be associated with the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah (11:1-3) that a "shoot shall grow from the stock of Jesse" (Egredietur virga de radice Jesse; note the similar resonance of virga with virgin).
Regarding the triune godhead bestowing a crown upon the young Mary, the iconography of three identical figures was suppressed by Church councils in Mexico. However, the banned imagery was accepted in the Andes by more liberal ecclesiastics, particularly the Jesuits who understood the Inca veneration of a triadic pantheon comparable to the Holy Trinity; Viracocha, the creator; his son Inti, the lord of the sun; and Illapa, the sky deity responsible for thunder, wind and hail. This Andean painting likely was commissioned by the Society of Jesus. St. Joseph, Ecoz's patron saint, is given great prominence in the foreground of the painting's composition. Jesuit missionaries throughout viceregal Peru embraced the nurturing foster father of Christ as the patron of their schools.
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