Michael the Archangel and the Conquering of Peru

This enormous oil painting of Saint Michael the Archangel was completed in Peru (Cuzco) around 1700. Despite the picture’s large size (it was at least 5 feet tall), no artist’s name appears on it. And that’s because the Spanish conquerors had commissioned the piece as propaganda and couldn’t care less about the artist.

At this time the Spanish aim was to control the Peruvian indigenous people, and by having a religious message of Catholic dominance over the native religion, they could do this more easily. Therefore, many paintings like this were designed to be publicly displayed, with the idea that the Catholic Church had vanquished the evil and powerful demon-monster speared below. In European Medieval art, Michael slays a dragon, but this creature looked like some of the art tattooed onto the Peruvian indigenous peoples.

The message was a clear proclamation of the Catholic Spanish conquerors, who claimed moral justification as they used military might to overtake much of South and Central America.