Ángel arcabucero / Arquebusier angel, Peru, XVII century.

An Ángel arcabucero (arquebusier angel) is an angel depicted with an arquebus (an early muzzle-loaded firearm) instead of the sword traditional for martial angels, dressed in clothing inspired by that of the Criollo and Andean nobles and aristocrats. The style arose in Peru in the second half of 17th century and was especially prevalent in the Cusco School.

In his work Ángeles apócrifos de la América Virreinal (1992), Ramón Mujica Pinilla noted the link between ángeles arcabuceros and certain winged warriors from the pre-Hispanic pantheon. The good reception that these works found among indigenous people of the era may be due in part to the ease with which they could identify these winged warriors with their ancient gods and heroes. According to Kelly Donahue-Wallace, the genre probably originated in the Collao region, near Lake Titicaca, and were actually based on Spanish and Dutch engravings.

Some of these European prints depicted apocryphal archangels, condemned by the Church, but apocryphal motifs survived in the Andes. Another probable source for the angels' poses, corresponding to the military exercises of the period, were the engravings from the 1607 Exercise in Arms by Jacob de Gheyn II.

Church of Calamarca, about 60 km from La Paz, Bolivia, contains the most complete existing series of ángeles arcabuceros, including the Asiel Timor Dei by Master of Calamarca (around 1680), that are considered notable examples of the type.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the demand for paintings from all corners of the Viceroyalty grew rapidly. Hundreds of Cusqueño paintings, many of which depicted ángeles arcabuceros, were shipped to Lima, Upper Peru (Bolivia), Chile, and northern Argentina. To satisfy this demand, large artistic workshops, mostly indigenous, were established.

Today, Cusco School's colonial paintings of ángeles arcabuceros are found in, notably in the Church of Calamarca (Bolivia), many cities of Peru, Bolivia, northern Argentina, churches and museums in Mexico, in various museums in Spain and in the New Orleans Museum of Art. There is also a collection of ten ángeles arcabuceros in the San Francisco de Padua Church in Uquía, located in Argentina's Quebrada de Humahuaca.

There is also a preserved series of beautiful very ornate and polychromed ángeles arcabuceros sculptures made in the 17th-century Potosí, plundered and now located in the Peyton Wright Gallery (New Mexico, USA).

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“Angel arcabucero” refers to the depiction of celestial being armed with a rifle or an arquebus in the second half of the 17th century throughout the Viceroyalty of Peru. The demand for such images continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries so much so that many churches in the numerous Andean cities such as La Paz and Lima commissioned them form various workshops.

The theme of archangels had a surprising development in the art of the southern highlands of the viceroyalty of Peru. Replacing classic suits of armor and bladed weapons, depictions emerged of these heavenly emissaries with harquebuses and the elegant attire of artillery officers. They were grouped in series, like military companies led by soldiers adorned with flags and drummers, and they adopted the poses of men performing firearms drills. Among their names, in addition to those of the traditional seven archangels, there appear mysterious names from ancient prophetic or hermetic Judeo-Christian texts. Such is the case with this Archangel Eliel, who is symbolized by a key. Eliel is an angel depicted in Aramaic texts as a spirit invoked through magical rituals. It has been suggested that the intention of this type of representation was to establish a bridge between the worship in pre-Hispanic Peru of winged deities and the religion imposed upon the indigenous population by the Spanish. Certainly, the natives associated the harquebus with Illapa, their old god of thunder and lightning. (FS)

Courtesy

Liturgical Arts Journal. The Ángel Arcabucero of Colonial Latin America.

Smart History. Master of Calamarca, Angel with Arquebus

Christie´s. Ángel arcabucero.

MALI, The Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru.

MNA,The National Museum of Art, La Paz, Bolivia.