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Cuzco Day 2
We did a half-day of archaeology today, visiting Sacsayhuamán, the historical centre of the Incan Empire, Q’Enqo, another Incan sacred site, the White Christ, a statue donated in the 1940s by Palestinian Christians that overlooks the city, and the cathedral that used to be an Incan temple before the Spanish fuckered it up.
The latter just really drove home the historical tragedy of Latin America that yes, I’ve read about in graphic detail, but you experience viscerally when you see the marvels of Incan engineering that built temples that could withstand earthquakes, gigantic puma statues, observatories that tracked the seasons, and then you see where the Spanish defaced the statues, melted the intricate golden artwork for plunder, and dug up the stones to build near-exact replicas of Every Church In Europe Ever.
This said, there were some neat tidbits to be seen in the Catholic art; Incan artists were invited to create paintings and sculptures in the cathedral, but were forbidden from using any of their religious symbols: Mother Earth, the Sun, mountains, rainbows, serpents, condors, pumas, etc. So when the Incan converts painted religious scenes, they made the Virgin Mary’s dress look like a mountain, turned her halo into a sun, hid zigzags in her dress to look like snakes and rivers, and so on. One artist traded favours with the bishop when painting the Last Supper; he was allowed to put in the traditional bread and guinea pig on the table, in exchange for giving Judas the dark skin of a local, but he had the last laugh by painting Judas’s face as the conquistador Pizarro. Another sculptor, after asking why the crucified Jesus looked up and to the left and receiving the answer that he was looking towards his father, sculpted him looking down and to the right, at Mother Earth, a tradition that continues in Andean Catholic art to this day.
On to the photos. Obviously you want to see llamas. I will show you llamas. Note that while they look cute and fluffy and soft, you should not pet them, because they spit. I know this due to my dubious lineage but poor Anya did not.
Also pictured is the ridonkulous dessert we had at a place that the tour guide recommended. It’s called “mango ravioli” and I must try to make it at home. It’s very thin slices of mango wrapped around apples baked with cinnamon and drizzled with a passionfruit and vanilla compote. Possibly among the best desserts I have eaten ever.
Cuzco is very beautiful so this is me showing restraint.
Tomorrow, off to the Sacred Valley.
The latter just really drove home the historical tragedy of Latin America that yes, I’ve read about in graphic detail, but you experience viscerally when you see the marvels of Incan engineering that built temples that could withstand earthquakes, gigantic puma statues, observatories that tracked the seasons, and then you see where the Spanish defaced the statues, melted the intricate golden artwork for plunder, and dug up the stones to build near-exact replicas of Every Church In Europe Ever.
This said, there were some neat tidbits to be seen in the Catholic art; Incan artists were invited to create paintings and sculptures in the cathedral, but were forbidden from using any of their religious symbols: Mother Earth, the Sun, mountains, rainbows, serpents, condors, pumas, etc. So when the Incan converts painted religious scenes, they made the Virgin Mary’s dress look like a mountain, turned her halo into a sun, hid zigzags in her dress to look like snakes and rivers, and so on. One artist traded favours with the bishop when painting the Last Supper; he was allowed to put in the traditional bread and guinea pig on the table, in exchange for giving Judas the dark skin of a local, but he had the last laugh by painting Judas’s face as the conquistador Pizarro. Another sculptor, after asking why the crucified Jesus looked up and to the left and receiving the answer that he was looking towards his father, sculpted him looking down and to the right, at Mother Earth, a tradition that continues in Andean Catholic art to this day.
On to the photos. Obviously you want to see llamas. I will show you llamas. Note that while they look cute and fluffy and soft, you should not pet them, because they spit. I know this due to my dubious lineage but poor Anya did not.
Also pictured is the ridonkulous dessert we had at a place that the tour guide recommended. It’s called “mango ravioli” and I must try to make it at home. It’s very thin slices of mango wrapped around apples baked with cinnamon and drizzled with a passionfruit and vanilla compote. Possibly among the best desserts I have eaten ever.
Cuzco is very beautiful so this is me showing restraint.
Tomorrow, off to the Sacred Valley.
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(that dessert, OMG)
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That dessert looks AMAZING!
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Cuzco is just drop dead gorgeous. It’s difficult to buy an art there, though, because a bazillion people are trying to sell you their art on the street.
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I don’t do a lot of RAW shooting, mostly b/c I know nothing about post-processing it. It’s on my list of things to learn about.
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And art history is indivisible from political history!
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I know this due to my dubious lineage but poor Anya did not.
Wait, how so? Did your family have llamas? I know llamas spit but they're so cute and I love the one wearing a scarf.
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