Diego Quispe Tito Inca (1611-1681), one of viceregal Peru's most important Indian artists, worked in San Sebastián near Cuzco. Although Quispe Tito's works reflect the influence of engravings printed by the Plantin Press (Antwerp), they also divulge the Indian's propensity for depicting local flora and fauna. His compositions are distinguished by winsome figures whose gentle mien parallels the harmony of idealized landscapes. Quispe Tito's works reflect a mastery of European techniques and understanding of abstruse iconography. Few of his paintings are signed. Among them is a Vision of the Cross (Santo Domingo, 1631), which presents an emblematic signature derived from Dürer's 1504 engraving of "Adam and Eve", a parrot bearing an inscribed scroll in its beak. The Holy Family with St. John the Baptist, attributed to a disciple of Quispe Tito, is based upon an event described in the Apocryphal Gospel of St. James: the reunion of Christ and his cousin upon the return from Egypt. A workshop "signature" may appear in this painting with the accented large parrot. The bird clutches a branch of cherries, a traditional symbol for the fruit of Paradise. Beside the parrot are red quillas (nukchus). The flowers which once were sacred to the Inca queen (coya) serve as a metaphorical symbol of Mary, the Regina Coeli.

Dr. Barbara von Barghahn
Washington, D.C., 1992