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Angel Harquebusier

Room 6, Vitrine 66


Oil on canvas
Cusco School
18th century
Loan from Museo Pedro de Osma

Around the end of the 17 th century representations of the Angel Harquebusier, without any antecedents in European art, began to appear in Cusco painting.

The figure is dressed in a Spanish military dress uniform. According to the chroniclers, the sound of the harquebus –which resembled a thunderclap– used by the first conquistadores led the Indians to believe that these Spaniards in their silver armor were their own gods, who had descended from the heavens.