The Legend of Santa Sophronia

PAINTINGS IN SPANISH COLONIAL HOMES
The enormous number of paintings acquired by private collectors in colonial Spanish America is borne out by evidence in testamentary, dowry, and other documents of the period. From urban centers to frontier areas, paintings by European and New World artists depicting religious and secular subjects decorated the homes of Creole, peninsular Spanish, mestizo (people of mixed race), and indigenous men and women.

The five Andean paintings on this wall were produced for a growing art market by anonymous artists in the workshops of Cuzco. Paintings of religious subjects were prevalent in Spanish America but uncommon in colonial British America; one exception was the New York scripture paintings made for Upper Hudson and Mohawk Valley Dutch families (see illustration).

Elite Spanish American homes also displayed Spanish and Flemish paintings, which annually traveled to the New World by way of Spanish ships and were marketed by merchants throughout Spanish America.