Main Square, Huancavelica

This painting by José Sabogal is representative of the Indigenist thought that the artist promoted from the beginning of the 20th century, which considered that the culture and sensibility of the people of the Andes were determined by the region’s geography.

In the 1930s, the painter became interested in the process of Peruvian cultural miscegenation, which he believed was expressed in the architecture of the southern Andes, and in objects produced by rural artists, such as engraved gourds or the bulls of Pucará. The church and main square of Huancavelica (depicted here) offered examples of what he called “mestizo” (“fusion”) architecture; namely, buildings that combined European styles and typologies such as Spanish baroque, but which were constructed using local materials by Indigenous craftspeople.

The church and square (made from local stone) are not merely framed by the mountains; they are shown as extensions of the landscape. In this way, Sabogal suggest that Andean culture is shaped by geography.