The complicity and richness of this composition are up to the subject represented: Christ carrying his Cross surrounded by angels carrying the instruments of the Passion. At the bottom center, a virgin statue recalls Mama Ocllo, founding goddess of Cuzco. It is not a classic representation of the Virgin as the mother of Jesus, but a statue seen from the front and idealized as a symbol.
The abundant details of this composition recall the Peruvian identity of the artist(s) at the origin of this work, hence the importance given to feathers in the hairstyle of angels.
One of the largest European collections devoted to the Baroque of the Andes »
Mr. and Mrs. Gérard PRIET (Part 1)
When I met Mr. and Mrs. Gérard PRIET about fifteen years ago, it was an opportunity to discover that they had constituted one of the largest European collections devoted to the Baroque of the Andes.
This common passion has led them to travel to South America since the 1980s. They were thus able to lend many works to museums in order to share an art of this continent with the general public. During the discovery of the New World, it is a European art that the Spanish religious congregations bring, then a hybrid art appears where Indians and Métis paint religious pictures but with many Indian and in particular Inca aspects. We see the refusal of perspective, the addition of bright colors, little messenger birds of the gods, arquebuser angels that we do not see anywhere else in the world. Added to this is the famous “brocateado”, this delicate gold painting that underlines the clothes of the Holy Family and the saints.
The painter and sculptor Fernando Botero (1932-2023) lived miserably in New York. Joachim Jean Aberbach heled him, found him a gallery to exhibit and sell his works. Grateful, Fernando Botero introduced him to the Baroque of the Andes during a trip to South America. Mr. Aberbach, charmed, began to collect paintings of the Andes. He also acquired works from Botero.
Mr. and Mrs. Gérard PRIET met in New York Mrs. Suzan Aberbach, widow of Joachim Jean
Aberbach, as well as his collection of paintings. These paintings being for sale, Mr. and Mrs. Gérard PRIET were able to acquire them, thus starting an exceptional collection.
Over the years and their wandering in the galleries and auction rooms of various countries, Mr. and Mrs.
Gérard PRIET was able to enrich their collection and deepen their knowledge of this art by searching for works dealing with this Andean Baroque art.
Exhibitions were organized between 2008 and 2019 by museum curators from works lent by Mr. and Mrs. Gérard PRIET. We can mention the museums of Montbrison, Le Mans, Castres, Sarrebourg,
Versailles (Lambinet Museum), Paris (Chunting Museum), La Rochelle (New World Museum), Auch (museum of
Americas), Paris (quai Branly- Jacques Chirac museum), Lyon (Fourvière museum), Paris (louvre museum- Grand
Palace).
The friendships they formed, especially with university professor Suzanne Stratton-Pruitt in New York, or with Mr. Ramon Mujica Pinilla in Lima, author of many books on Andean art, have been a valuable help in their knowledge of this art.
Today, Mr. and Mrs. Gérard PRIET have decided to pass the torch to other amateurs and institutions that will continue to develop the fruits of their passion.
