Immaculate Virgin Victorious over the Serpent of Heresy

Its composition incorporates Byzantine iconographic conventions, evident in the flat, frontal presentation of the Virgin and the stylized halos.

Executed in oil on canvas, the painting reflects the Cuzco School’s synthesis of European Baroque influences and local artistic traditions. Its composition incorporates Byzantine iconographic conventions, evident in the flat, frontal presentation of the Virgin and the stylized halos. The use of bright, saturated colors and intricate detailing of textiles and accessories demonstrates the artist’s skill in rendering both material richness and symbolic depth.

Basilio Santa Cruz Pumacallao, a painter of Quechua and Ladino heritage from Cusco, produced the piece during the colonial period when Spanish religious art was being disseminated throughout the Andes. The painting entered the collection of the Museo de Arte de Lima, where it remains part of the museum’s permanent holdings, representing an important example of 17th‑century Andean religious painting.

The artwork belongs to the broader tradition of colonial Baroque religious imagery introduced by Spanish missionaries, which was adapted by indigenous and mestizo artists into a distinctive Cuzco School aesthetic. By integrating European iconography with local symbolic language, the painting illustrates the cultural exchange and syncretism that characterized artistic production in Peru during the late 1600s.