Don Pedro Ortiz de Zárate

Pedro Ortiz de Zárate was born in 1622, in San Salvador de Jujuy, northwest of present-day Argentina. Descendant of a family of conquerors that possessed several encomiendas in the region, Zárate came to hold the position of royal ensign of his hometown due to his political and family connections.

In 1644, he married Petronila de Ibarra y Argañarás. Nine years later, a building collapsed on the wife, leaving Zárate widower. From this event on, the main character of the painting abandoned his civil life to study at the seminary in the city of Córdoba and he was ordained as a priest, in 1675.

Zárate dedicated himself to the evangelization of the indigenous people of the Chaco, together with the Jesuit missionaries who carried out their work in this place. There, the priest had to mediate between the colonial authorities and the indigenous groups that resisted the Spanish invasion and defended their lands and ways of life. On October 27, 1683, the natives attacked the group formed by the priest and the Jesuits Diego Ruiz and Antonio Solinas, which resulted in the death of these three characters.

The painting represents the episode of the priest’s death, attacked by an indigenous man who stabs him in the chest. In the upper right corner, an angel is about to crown Zárate and grant him the palm that characterizes martyrs. The figure of the native, seen here as an executioner, is the only pictorial representation of an indigenous person in the Santa Clara Museum collection.

From a contemporary and critical perspective with the colonial period, the uniqueness of the painting, as well as its approach to the indigenous, generates reflections and questions about the ways in which indigenous groups, their relationship with the conquerors and their resistance struggles were represented.

At the bottom of the composition, a cartouche is seen containing Zárate’s biographical data and an account of the circumstances surrounding his death. The figure of this priest has great importance in Argentinian religiosity, especially in the north region. His relevance is such, that a process for his canonization is currently underway.

At the bottom of the composition, a cartouche is seen containing Zárate’s biographical data and an account of the circumstances surrounding his death. The figure of this priest has great importance in Argentinian religiosity, especially in the north region. His relevance is such, that a process for his canonization is currently underway.