Arcadópolis
A priest from the Mercederian order (Order of Our Lady of Mercy)
Pancho Fierro, 1848
What you see
A Mercedarian friar stands facing us at the center of the sheet, his head tilted slightly. A white habit falls to his feet beneath a broad cape bunched around his neck, and he wears a dark round cap. In one hand he holds a long black object against his chest, and his gaze meets the viewer's.
Almost everything is white, modeled with soft grays in the folds; the pink cheeks and the black of the cap and shoes supply the contrast. Don’t miss the small red shield on the habit, the rosary hanging at his side and, at lower left, an ink inscription naming Lima along with a date.
About Pancho Fierro
Francisco “Pancho” Fierro was born in Lima in 1807, the son of a priest and an enslaved woman of the household, and earned his living painting shop signs, bullfight posters and murals. His quick, humorous watercolours portray the tapadas, street vendors, friars, musicians and riders of nineteenth-century Lima, usually against an empty background that leaves the spotlight on clothing and gesture. He painted more than a thousand scenes, which were exported to Europe, Asia and North America, and the painter José Sabogal called him “the first Peruvian artist”.
More by Pancho Fierro
Tapada limeña
A man and woman dancing the Zamacueca
Lady bathing at Chorrillos
A watercarrier riding a donkey
A woman getting into her saya viewed from behind
A woman walking with a Llama
A woman carrying a vessel on her head and a child on her back
A man riding a mule, his whip raised, another mule loaded with grass alongside
Two musicians and a man carrying on his head a rooster in cage
The Arcadópolis Museum has 443 public-domain works in 40 rooms, free to explore in 3D in your browser.