The Denver Art Museum recently acquired two outstanding works of 18th-century Quito sculpture to enrich our collection of Colonial Latin American art.
Unknown artist, Virgin of Quito, about 1750. Copper-nickel alloy, paint, and silver leaf on cedar wood; 17½ × 9½ × 6½ in. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John Pogzeba, 1974.265.
Unknown artist, Saint Peter of Alcántara Penitent, early 1700s. Wood, gesso, paint, glass, and metal; 12 × 6 × 3½ in. Gift of the Stapleton Foundation of Latin American Colonial Art, made possible by the Renchard Family, 1990.332.
During the 1600s and 1700s, the Andean city of Quito was the most important production center of polychrome sculpture in South America. Commentators and chroniclers of the 1700s remarked on the high quality of quiteño sculpture and its popularity with consumers across Latin America and Europe. Spanish artists like Diego de Robles (d. 1594), who had arrived in Quito by the 1580s, helped introduce the techniques of polychrome sculpture to South America. Though outwardly following European stylistic conventions, particularly those of Southern Spain, the vast majority of Quito sculptures were produced by anonymous Indigenous and mestizo (of mixed racial descent) artists in workshop settings. The most famous practitioners were the mestizo and Indigenous sculptors Bernardo de Legarda (c. 1700–1773) and Manuel Chili "Caspicara" (1723–1796).
Among Legarda’s many significant commissions is his Virgin of Quito, sculpted for the convent of San Francisco in 1734. Legarda transformed the traditional iconography of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception by giving her a new pose—head declined and arms raised—and endowing her mantle with dynamic movement. The DAM’s example of the same subject, which entered the collection in 1974, features beautiful estofado, a technique used for depicting the lush brocades popular in colonial Ecuador, created through the application of gold and paint over gesso. Artists would usually first apply a layer of gesso, then gold leaf, and finally paint, after which they would carefully scratch away the paint to reveal the gold beneath. Typical for Quito sculptures, the work was further enhanced with fine silver ornaments—wings, a resplandor (halo), and a repousséd base.
Quito sculptures were praised not only for their beauty and bright polychromy but for the sculptor’s ability to evoke human flesh through a technique known as encarnación, created through layers of paint and sanding. Many works feature lifelike glass eyes, further enhancing their realism and evocative potential. Sculptures were made both for the adornment of churches and monasteries and, at much smaller scale, for use within the domestic sphere.
Important examples of Quito sculpture came to the museum in 1990 with the unprecedented donation by the Renchard family of more than 500 objects collected by Daniel Casey Stapleton (1858–1920) between 1895 and 1914. Among the vast array of works are small-scale devotional sculptures like this remarkable example of the Spanish Franciscan St. Peter of Alcántara, his emaciated back flayed open from whipping himself in penance, and a scourge clenched in his hand.
Such grisly details were intended to provoke an empathetic response in the viewer and are also found in the recently acquired Christ on the Cross. In this work, the artist has meticulously rendered the bloody, livid wounds on Christ’s hands, elbows, knees, and back, making his suffering palpable. Christ’s contrapposto pose and carefully modeled body and drapery show the remarkable skill of the sculptor and a sophisticated understanding of human anatomy. As with other sculptures from Quito, the work has been embellished with silver cross finials and an arch-shaped nimbus featuring sheaves of wheat (a symbol of the Eucharist). Originally part of a Calvary scene, such as this example in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection, the sculpture would have been accompanied by figures of the Virgin, Mary Magdalene, and Saint John the Baptist, witnesses to the Crucifixion. This extraordinary piece will go on view in the Latin American Art galleries on level 4 of the Martin Building in May 2024.
Left: Unknown artist, Christ on the Cross, 1700s. Polychrome wood and silver; 28⅜ × 12⅝ × 7¼ in. Funds from the Charles Patterson III bequest and from Jeff Dunn in honor of Charles Patterson III, 2022.322A-B.
Right: Unknown artist, Dormition of the Virgin, 1700s. Polychrome wood, lace, embroidered silk, silver, and glass; 27 × 19½ × 28 in. Funds from Charles Patterson III, 2022.336A-G. Image courtesy of Jackson's International Auctioneers, Cedar Falls, Iowa U.S.A.
The museum’s most recent acquisition of Quito sculpture is an exceptional Dormition of the Virgin, showing the figure of Mary at her death, resting on an elaborate gilt bed featuring latticework, rocaille flourishes, and an inset mirror. According to the Christian apocrypha, the Virgin died peacefully in bed, surrounded by the Apostles. Images of the death and assumption of the Virgin were especially popular in Quito, a city constantly under the threat of violent death via earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. The piece is remarkable not simply for the skillful treatment of Mary’s serene face but also for its opulence. In addition to the rococo bed, the work features original 18th-century fabrics—including handmade lace, brocades, and silk stockings. The Virgin is further adorned with a silver belt at her waist, an intricate silver crown, and pendant earrings—finery befitting her status as the Queen of Heaven. A nearly life-size version of this scene can be found at the Monastery of El Carmen Alto in Quito; the Denver Art Museum’s small-scale version was most likely intended for devotion within the privacy of the home or perhaps a convent cell. This work will soon undergo conservation for display.
Both Christ on the Cross and the Dormition were acquired in part through the generosity of Charles Patterson III, former conservator at the Denver Art Museum, and gifts made in his honor by Jeff Dunn. Patterson, who trained in London and worked there at the British Museum and Horniman Museum, joined the DAM in 1991 as its first conservator. During his 18 years at the museum, he expanded the conservation department and eventually became its director. We are grateful for his enduring legacy in the Latin American Art department.
