Coat-of-arms and portrait of Manco Cápac

Room 6, Vitrine 61

Oil on canvas, painted on both sides
Cusco School
18th century
Private collection

The coat-of-arms is composed of a sun, a scepter and the Mascaipacha (crown of bird feathers, the symbol of the Inca’s power) emerging from two intertwined serpents and flanked by two rampant pumas. The shield is topped by a European style crown of gold and precious stones.

Through images like the portrait of Manco Capac with his heraldic device, the indigenous nobility of Cusco sought official recognition of their rank, in response to efforts by Spain’s Bourbon kings to rescind the rights and privileges which Emperor Carlos V had granted them.