Viceroyalty School. End of 18th century.

Viceroyalty School. End of 18th century.
"Genealogy of the fourteen Inca kings and the conqueror Francisco Pizarro"
Fifteen oil paintings on canvas. Relined. 84 x 63 cm each. With export license granted.
Complete series comprising the fourteen Inca Emperors: Mancco Ccapac, Sinchi Rocca, Lloqque Yupanqui, Maita Ccapac, Ccapac Yupanqui, Inca Rocca Yahuar- Huaccac, Viracocha, Pachacutec, Inca Yupanqui, Tupac-Yupanqui, Huaina Ccapac, Huascar-Inca and Atahuallpa, and the portrait of Francisco Pizarro.
Accompanied by an X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF) which was applied to the study of the pictorial technique, dating the paintings to the 18th century.
An important collection which comprises all of the 14 Inca sovereigns. It begins with the founder of Cuzco, Mancco Ccapac, and goes through to the last of the emperors, Atahualpa and ends with a portrait of Francisco Pizarro. This is a chronological depiction of the portraits of those who governed the Inca Empire before the Spanish Conquest.
They are depicted as dressed in the uncu, an exquisitely woven tunic, the mascaipacha (symbol of power as governor of Cusco and Tahuantinsuyo) and a version of the llautu, the traditional royal headdress, complete with red forehead fringe.
The geometric textile patterns in all the paintings are reminiscent of tocapu designs on traditional Inca noble clothing, signifying rank and status.
The imperial attire is completed with the gold topayauiri or sceptre, topped with a type of plume as a continuation in an axe shape on one side and an awl on the other.
Francisco Pizarro is shown in his European armour.
The iconic genealogy if the Incas is associated with an engraving made by the clergyman Alonso de la Cueva Ponce de León (1684-1754) in 1725, approximately.
This series of genealogies was at its peak after Independence, due to the desire of the indigenous elites in Cuzco to return to their position.
The Denver Museum has a series of sixteen portraits in its collection which reflect our fifteen, with an additional portrait of Mama Occollo, the principal wife of the Inca Manco Cápac, both founding heroes of the Inca Empire.
As the Denver Museum notes in its index cards on these portraits: This series of genealogies that show the former governors of the Inca Empire “is not only a family tree but a political tool. Since proof of aristocratic Inca blood entitled people to special privileges and freed them from paying taxes in the Spanish Colonial period, paintings were used to document and assert this heritage.” (https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/object/1977.45.1)
As stated in the Cervantes Institute’s biography of the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega:
“According to the traditional account determined by the Inca Garcilaso in his Royal Commentaries of Peru, the founding fathers Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo, were born in the waters of Lake Titicaca, and founded the city of Cuzco, the centre of Inca development, in the place revealed by the sun god (Inti) after a pilgrimage that began in the south of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Another version of the origin myth, collected in the 16th century by Juan de Betanzos (Narrative of the Incas, 1551), attributes it to the four Ayar brothers and their respective partners. (http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/inca_garcilaso_de_la_vega/autor_cronologia/)
There are differences in the dates attributed to the different Inca kingdoms.
Taking the chronology published in the Cervantes Institute’s website as a base, which is taken from Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (Cuzco, Governorate of New Castile, 1539 – Cordoba, 1616) the 14 incas and their periods of governance, all represented in these genealogical portraits, were:
From the period 1200-1438, before the Inca state was established, was the founder
I-Mancco Ccapac (1200-1230) and those who succeded him, II-Sinchi Rocca (1230-1260)
III-Lloqque Yupanqui (1260-1290), IV-Maita Ccapac (1290-1320), V-Ccapac Yupanqui (1320-1350), VI- Inca Rocca (1350-1380), VII- Yahuar- Huaccac (1380-1400), VIII-Viracocha (1400-1438),
IX- Pachacutec, (1438-1471) marked the beginning of the Historical Inca Empire with the Kingdom of the Inca Pachacutec, conqueror of the Chanca states.
X- Inca Yupanqui (Modern historians have removed his reign from the official list of Inca rulers).
XI- Tupac-Yupanqui, XII- Huaina Ccapac (1481-1523) on his death, the Inca Empire was divided between his two sons, Huascar-Inca (1523-1532), Sovereign of the northern region, and Atahualpa (1532-1533), Inca of the southern territories.
The period from 1528-1532 saw a civil war between Huascar and Atahualpa over control of the Inca Empire, which ended in August 1532 in Atahualpa’s definitive victory over Huascar in the Battle of Cotabamba. Atahualpa was crowned Inca in Cajamarca.
In 1533, the trial and execution of Atahualpa took place. Francisco Pizarro conquered Peru in 1534 and was governor of Peru / New Castile from 1534 to 1540.
The Inca Empire passed into Spanish hands, although Tupac Hualpa (1533), Manco Inca (1533-1536) and Paullu Inca (1537-1549) reigned nominally and were crowned by the conquistadors.
Examples of this genealogy in individual portraits that are similar to these, as well as those already mentioned in the Denver Museum can be found in:
- Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
- The individual portrait of Atahuallpa is kept at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin
As well as these series of genealogies in sets of individual portraits, genealogies were also painted in one sole picture in which, depending on the period in which they were executed, the series of governors of the Inca Empire previous to the Spanish conquest was followed chronologically by portraits of the Spanish monarchs.
There are magnificent examples of this type of painting, such as those kept in:
- Lima Cathedral Museum, dated circa 1725.
- The Pedro de Osma Museum in Lima, dating from the late 18th century / early 19th century.
- The Carmen de Maipu Museum in Chile, which describes the intention of these types of pictures in the painting’s index card: “the inclusion of the Spanish monarchs responds to the necessity for uniting power, as a strategy of legitimisation and control in colonial society, given that, through these portraits the Spanish monarchs would assimilate the power and the deity that the Inca represented. And, on the contrary, the Incas were considered to be the equals of Spanish royalty, in that way being accepted and acknowledged in their role as former heads of state. The social function of these pictures varied depending on how the historical and political facts were presented.”
- The Lima Museum of Art, has an interesting set mounted as a screen, described in their catalogue in this way: “This emblematic piece condenses different stages of art in Peru, it evokes the pre-Colombian past in the shape of a genealogy of the Incas, a theme which came up in the Colonial period to affirm the idea of legitimate continuity between the former Inca Empire and the Spanish Empire. In this case, however, the absence of the Spanish monarchs responds to a clear republican vindication. The coats of arms of Cuzco and of the Peruvian Republic preside over a sequence of Inca governors beginning with Manco Capac, the legendary founder of the empire, and closes with a figure on horseback identified as the "Liberator of Peru"
- Convent of Saint Francis in Huamanga, Peru.
- Beguinage of the Convent of Our Lady of Copacabana, Lima.
Provenance: - Private collection, Florence.
- Private collection, Portugal.