Original Peruvian Watercolor. Painting of a village with llamas. Signed "Santos" lower right. 

Overall: 15 3/4 X 18 5/8 in. 

Sight: 9 1/2 X 12 1/2 in. 

#2779 . 

Prior to the appearance of colonial conquerors in the 16th Century, most Peruvian art was confined to textiles, sculpture, and carving. The Cusco School (Escuela Cuzqueña) or Cuzco School was a Roman Catholic artistic tradition based in Cusco, Peru (the former capital of the Inca Empire) during the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries. It spread to other cities in the Andes, as well as to present day Ecuador and Bolivia. The tradition originated after the 1534 Spanish conquest of Peru, and it is considered the first artistic center that systematically taught European artistic techniques in the Americas. Jesuit monks introduced murals and paintings in the style of Mannerism to the indigenous population in an effort to encourage them to engage with Western traditions. The painter Luis de Riaño, born in Lima and a disciple of Italian artist Angelino Medoro, had a major hand in developing the school, and the Baroque style infiltrated the country thanks to Flemish artists who traveled there seeking inspiration. Rapidly shifting political situations led to fewer European artists coming to Peru in the 17th Century, as well as increasing activity of Amerindian-Quechua and Mestizo painters. The term “Cuzqueña” to describe Peruvian art evolved not only because it was derived by the hands of local artists, but because it began to move away from the influence of Western art and follow its own path. In the 19th Century French Neoclassical and Romantic influences permeated the movement, and the establishment of the Fine Arts School of Lima in 1919 led to the first fully indigenous modern art movement, led by sculptors and painters like Luis Agurto and Jose Sabogal. In the 1980s a civil war rocked the county and artists responded to the political situation, sometimes with much darker and Abstract imagery and at other times with idealized Impressionist reimaginings of their cities and ancient Incan architecture. Today, practically every city and village in Peru has a specific folk art form it has developed in an appeal to increasing tourism.