The Foundation’s Art of the Spanish Americas collection numbers more than 175 works from the 17th to 19th centuries—principally paintings from South America. The collection includes works on religious themes and portraits from the Viceroyalty of Peru (and the smaller entities such as the Kingdom of Nueva Granada into which it was divided in the eighteenth century), as well as a small selection of portraits from the Spanish Caribbean.
During the several centuries-long rule of Spain over large parts of South America, painters and sculptors in that region did not often sign their works of art. It was not even a usual practice among recognized masters, whose signatures appear only occasionally, so that identification of their bodies of work depends on stylistic analysis.
