Viceroyalty of Peru

The viceroyalty encompassed modern-day Peru as well as much of the rest of South America, the Portuguese controlled what is today Brazil.

1534–1820 C.E.

Beginner's Guide

What is the Viceroyalty of Peru?

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Africans in Guaman Poma’s <em>Nueva Corónica</em>
Africans in Guaman Poma’s Nueva Corónica

Nueva Corónica provides us with a revealing glimpse at interactions between Africans and Indigenous Andeans in the Viceroyalty of Peru.

The colonial Andes and the Viceroyalty of Peru
The colonial Andes and the Viceroyalty of Peru

Despite violent European invasion and colonization, Indigenous people living in the Andes continued, adapted, resisted, and shaped Peru.

<em>Portrait of Don Marcos Chiguan Topa</em>
Portrait of Don Marcos Chiguan Topa

An Indigenous nobleman in colonial Peru, Don Marcos is strategically portrayed with emblems of both Inka and Spanish elite status.

Official Portrait of Bishop Luis Francisco Romero
Official Portrait of Bishop Luis Francisco Romero

Never underestimate the power of a well-chosen accessory!

Portraits of Francisca Ramírez de Laredo and Antonio de Ulloa
Portraits of Francisca Ramírez de Laredo and Antonio de Ulloa

These portraits of a couple show us what the sitters want us to see about them, and conceal the less glamorous details of their lives

<i>The Child Mary Spinning</i>
The Child Mary Spinning

This luxuriously dressed Virgin Mary as a child spinning cloth may have spoken to the rich textile traditions of Indigenous cultures in Peru

<em>The Coronation of the Virgin by the Holy Trinity</em>
The Coronation of the Virgin by the Holy Trinity

The Trinity visualized as triplets was a common subject in 18th-century Peru—and beyond

Churches of Chiloé
Churches of Chiloé

The Churches of Chiloé represent a unique example in Latin America of an outstanding form of ecclesiastical wooden architecture.

Melchor Pérez de Holguín, <em>Entry of Viceroy Archbishop Morcillo into Potosí</em>
Melchor Pérez de Holguín, Entry of Viceroy Archbishop Morcillo into Potosí

Pérez de Holguín creates an opulent vision of the city of Potosí, disregarding the infamous stories of poverty and exploitation in the mines of the Cerro Rico

Conserving Cuzco School Paintings
Conserving Cuzco School Paintings

Follow the conservation treatment and research of “Emblem of Folly,” a painting from colonial Cuzco. Committed study of these works can help create a better understanding of Latinx cultural identity and history.

Alonso de Ovalle, <em>Tabula geographica regni Chile</em>
Alonso de Ovalle, Tabula geographica regni Chile

The Ovalle map is one the earliest maps of Chile that circulated around Europe, and includes people, plants, and animals to create a vivid sense of the lands controlled by the Spanish Crown.

Introduction to the Viceroyalty of Peru
Introduction to the Viceroyalty of Peru

The arts of colonial Peru are neither fully pre-Columbian nor fully European, but a dynamic combination.

Selected Contributors