Marcos Zapata: Difference between revisions

{{for|the comic book character|Relampago}}{{Short description|Peruvian painter}}

'''Marcos Zapata''' (c. 1710–1773), also called '''Marcos Sapaca Inca)''', was a Native master painter from [[Peru]]vian painter, known for combining Christian stories with indigenous culture. The most famous example being ''The Last Supper'' (c.1753), which represents the famous New Testament story, but with the incorporation of [[Andean civilizations|Andean]] foods such as ''[[Guinea pig|Cuy]].'' <ref name=":0" /> He studied and later taught with the [[Cusco School|Cuzco School]] where he had a workshop with multiple apprentices working to produce vast amount of paintings.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Rachel |date=2020 |title=Art, Commerce and Colonialism 1600–1800. Emma Barker, ed. Art and Its Global Histories. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017. viii + 208 pp. $34.95. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/rqx.2019.517 |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |volume=73 |issue=1 |pages=245–246 |doi=10.1017/rqx.2019.517 |issn=0034-4338}}</ref> The themes are primarily Christian subjects meant for churches in Peru and Chile.<ref name=":1" />

'''Marcos Zapata''' (c. 1710–1773), also called '''Marcos Sapaca Inca''', was a [[Peru]]vian painter, born in [[Cuzco]]. He was one of the last members of the [[Cuzco School]], an art center in which Spanish painters taught native students to paint religious works. In the Andean culture of Peru, Cuzco painters merged Christian symbols with indigenous Andean traditions.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Zendt |first=Christina |date=2010 |title=Marcos Zapata's "Last Supper": a feast of European religion and Andean culture |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21568039/ |journal=Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=9–11 |doi=10.1525/gfc.2010.10.4.9 |issn=1529-3262 |pmid=21568039}}</ref> Zapata introduced elements from his own lands into his paintings. For instance, his 1753 rendering of the ''[[Last Supper]]'' shows Jesus and his twelve disciples gathering around a table laid with [[guinea pig]] and glasses of [[chicha]]. [[Guinea pig|Guinea pigs]], native to Peru and a culinary delicacy, play a significant role in [[Andean culture (disambiguation)|Andean culture]]. They are used in Inca festivals as sacrificial animals, much like how lambs are used in traditional Christian ceremonies.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |lastlast1=Sandweiss |firstfirst1=Daniel H. |last2=Wing |first2=Elizabeth S. |date=1997 |title=Ritual Rodents: The Guinea Pigs of Chincha, Peru |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/530560 |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=47–58 |doi=10.2307/530560 |jstor=530560 |issn=0093-4690}}</ref> In the painting, traditional elements like bread and ceremonial cups are joined by native foods such as potato, [[rocoto relleno]], and corn. The blending of Andean culinary tradition with Christianity is a common theme in Cuzco paintings, especially as the painting's background features Christ on the Cross and Mary figures.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Palmer |first=Allison Lee |date=2008-01-01 |title=The Last Supper by Marcos Zapata (c. 1753): a meal of bread, wine, and guinea pig. |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=1527652X&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA191476255&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=Aurora, Thethe Journal of the History of Art |language=English |volume=9 |pages=54–74}}</ref>

His influential style developed between 1748 and 1773; The themes are primarily Christian subjects meant for churches in Peru and Chile.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |lastlast1=Seldes |firstfirst1=Alicia M. |last2=Burucua |first2=Jose Emilio |last3=Maier |first3=Marta S. |last4=Abad |first4=Gonzalo |last5=Jauregui |first5=Andrea |last6=Siracusano |first6=Gabriela |date=1999 |title=Blue Pigments in South American Painting (1610-1780) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3180041 |journal=Journal of the American Institute for Conservation |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=100 |doi=10.2307/3180041 |jstor=3180041 |issn=0197-1360}}</ref> He is known for his beautiful portraits of the Virgin Mary, almost always surrounded by [[cherubim]]. Zapata incorporated allegorical subjects in his Madonnas. [[Christoph Thomas Scheffler]] wrote in 1732, that the painter was inspired by prints of the subject. His compositions are didactic, with a relatively simple reading of complex theological concepts.<ref name=arte/>

==== Cuzco School ====

The Cuzco School is apart of an art movement in the seventeenth century a type of art that is the mixture and influence of Spanish and Peruvian culture. The Cuzco School within this set was meant to describe a set of artists, guilds and workshops that all produced this type of artwork stemming from [[Cusco|Cuzco]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Meredith |first=America |date=Spring 2014 |title=The Cuzco School: Andean Visions in Oils and Gold |url=https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:BRUc15QHLyIJ:scholar.google.com/+The+Cuzco+School+Andean+Visions+in+Oils+and+Gold&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 |journal=Fırst American Art Magazine |volume=2 |via=Remembered, Allan Houser, et al. "FırstAmericanArt." (2014).}}</ref> What made it stand out was the vast amount of work that was produced under the names of those were associated with it.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Damian |first=Carol |date=December 1, 1995 |title=Artist and Patron in Colonial Cuzco: Workshops, Contracts, and a Petition for Independence |url=https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/clahr/vol4/iss1/2/ |journal=Colonial Latin American Historical Review |volume=4 |issue=1 |issn=1063-5769}}</ref> Marcos Zapata was in said to be charge during the late eighteenth century.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2022-08-09 |title=Latin America in 1790 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781394266500.ch2 |journal=A History of Modern Latin America |pages=26–52 |doi=10.1002/9781394266500.ch2|isbn=978-1-394-26650-0 }}</ref>

== Select Artworksartworks ==

188 x 50 cm, oil painting that is credited to Marcos Zapata and his workshop. This painting is another example of Christian stories and beliefs infused with Peruvian detail; such as the animals in the background meant to resemble more native creatures to Peru along with gold decoration on items such as cloth.<ref name=":12" /> This work was sold at action from June third to June fourth of 2014.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Adoration of the Magi |url=https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/The-Adoration-of-the-Magi/AA1EF25CE0C9B732 |url-status=live |access-date=May 5, 2024 |website=MuralArt}}</ref>

207 x 166 cm, oil painting attributed to Marcos Zapata. Notable for it use of [[Vermilion|Vermillion]] pigments, uncommon at the time due to the materials used to mix it being rare. <ref>{{Cite journal |lastlast1=Seldes |firstfirst1=Alicia |last2=Burucua |first2=Jose E. |last3=Siracusano |first3=Gabriela |last4=Maier |first4=Marta S. |last5=Abad |first5=Gonzalo E. |date=2002 |title=Green, Yellow, and Red Pigments in South American Painting, 1610-1780 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3179920 |journal=Journal of the American Institute for Conservation |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=225 |doi=10.2307/3179920 |jstor=3179920 |issn=0197-1360|hdl=11336/91536 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>