The Funerals of Inca Atahualpa

The Funerals of Inca Atahualpa is one of the decisive works in the history of Peruvian nineteenth-century art. Peruvian history painting began with this painting, which also closed the career of Luis Montero, one of the most important academic painters of the century. Based on a passage from William Hickling Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Peru, the painting recreates the Christian funeral rites of the last Inca in Cajamarca. Thirty-three figures fill this spectacular mise en scène, the fruit of several years of research and meticulous preparation in Europe. The strict composition of the canvas reveals the influence of the traditional teaching of the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, where Montero studied. Within a framework composed of fantastic architecture, Montero arranges two clearly differentiated groups. To the right solemnly lies the body of Atahualpa, surrounded by the victorious conquistadores. In contrast, on the opposite side the pain and anguish of the Inca’s women is recorded, as they attempt to approach the corpse. On the floor, a fallen candlestick is extinguished in an allusion to the end of the empire. Completed in Florence in 1867, the canvas was exhibited there for the first time before being presented in Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Buenos Aires and Lima, the final destination of the painter. (NM)