Pascana / Indian camp

Francisco Laso, who had received academic training in Europe, cultivated in Peru a vocation for depicting the oppression experienced by Peruvians, in both his painting and his writing. He traveled throughout the highlands of southern Peru, and based on those experiences he created a series of canvases that present us with the geography, customs and typical dress of those regions at the time.
Pascana, or Indian Camp, is inspired by the rest stops taken by caravans of travelers in the interior of Peru. In the foreground and central axis of the composition, we see a spinner, standing and surrounded by four seated figures.
In the background, to the left we see a group of standing figures, while to the right a lone individual carries a load on his back. Beyond these figures, in the heights, we see another group of seated persons, and behind them a man blows on a conch shell to gather his llamas.
In this canvas, Laso does not seek to depict individual gestures or features, choosing instead to present us with idealized Andean figures, characterized by their traditional clothing and the geography of their surroundings.