Indigenous Wedding / The Funeral / The Honeymoon / Corpus Christi Procession

We do not know the name of the author of this series of four small oil paintings. His style, however, links his work to the costumbrist painting that emerged in northern Peru towards the end of the nineteenth century. This is an art strongly influenced by the pictorial tradition of Quito and which constitutes one of the few manifestations of costumbrismo beyond Lima. These works depict different aspects of the life of a couple in the mining city of Hualgayoc: their meeting at the traditional celebration of Corpus Christi, the wedding witnessed by the best man and matron of honor, the departure of the couple and the burial of the young husband. Taken together, the series might be interpreted as a missing link in the development of a regional pictorial tradition in northern Peru: the moment of transition between viceroyalty art and the work of Mario Urteaga, the most important master of twentieth century Cajamarca painting. (NM)