The painting was done by hand in Cuzco, Peru, where artists have been painting the Virgin this way for almost five hundred years. The Cuzco school began in the 1500s when Spanish missionaries trained Quechua and mestizo painters to make sacred art for the new churches of the Andes.What came out of that integration was its own thing entirely. You can see it in the warmth of her face, the gold detail on her veil, and the brightness of the blue. It doesn't look like anything you'd find in a European museum or a catalog. It looks like it was made by someone who prays to her.
