Corpus Christi Procession, Parish of San Cristóbal, ca. 1680.
Museo de Arte Religioso, Cuzco, Peru. Photograph courtesy the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.

This is one of sixteen paintings showing the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi in 17th-century Cuzco. In it, members of the parish of San Cristóbal march alongside a large cart—akin to a modern-day float. The feast of Corpus Christi was the most important festival in Cuzco's church calendar. During the celebration, representatives of the different parishes of Cuzco, the religious confraternities, the religious orders, and the civil government marched through town along a processional route towards the cathedral.

The standard bearer at the far left is the cacique of San Cristóbal parish, don Carlos Huayna Capac Inka. He wears a festival costume: a colonial interpretation of ancient Inka clothing—a banded headdress and tunic embroidered with tocapu over full sleeves bordered with lace. Members of the Cuzco elite watch the procession from the windows of the houses along the processional route. The cart, although lifelike in its appearance, is an imagined vehicle, not one actually used in the procession. Its presence complicates the painting, turning it from a visual account of what actually happened during Corpus Christi into an appeal to viewers' imaginations about what could possibly appear.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dean, Carolyn. 1999. Inka Bodies and the Body of Christ: Corpus Christi in Colonial Cuzco, Peru. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Mesa, José de and Teresa Gisbert. 1982. Historia de la pintura cuzqueña. Lima: Fundación A.N. Wiese, Banco Wiese.

	Cacique: (Taíno) An indigenous male ruler. The term originates in the prehispanic Caribbean, and came to be used throughout Spain's colonies. Cacica is the female form. back to text
	Corpus Christi: (Latin) An important festival in the Catholic Church's calendar that celebrates the Eucharist, or rite during which bread and wine are consecrated. back to text
	Cuzco: (Quechua) Andean city that was the Inka capital in prehispanic times, now in Peru. Also Cusco, Q'osqo. back to text
	Inka: (Quechua) The empire built by a group of Quechua-speaking Andeans in the 14th and 15th centuries that stretched from Ecuador to Chile. "Sapa Inka" was the title of its supreme ruler, and its capital city was Cuzco. Also Inca. back to text
	Tocapu: (Quechua) Woven cloth with a design of small, individually patterned rectangles worn only by the highest native elite in the Andes. Also tokapu, toq'apu. back to text

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