Arcadópolis
Two musicians and a man carrying on his head a rooster in cage
Pancho Fierro, c. 1848
What you see
A small procession moves to the left across a strip of grass. In front walks a tall man in a black top hat and blue cape, playing a long wind instrument. In the middle, a shorter figure dressed in white beats a red drum. Bringing up the rear, a man in a green poncho balances a cage on his head and carries a long stick.
Each figure gets its own color, blue, red and green, set against white clothing and pale paper. Everything is quick and light, from the loosely stroked grass to the folds of the cape. Don’t miss the red pennant atop the cage, the rooster with its green tail, and the penciled word “Gallos.”
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
A priest from the Mercederian order (Order of Our Lady of Mercy)
The Arcadópolis Museum has 443 public-domain works in 40 rooms, free to explore in 3D in your browser.