Lima Art Museum Highlights 10 Works from Pre-Columbian to Contemporary

A guide published by DailyArt Magazine selects ten artworks at the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI) in Lima, Peru, spanning from 1500 BCE to 2006. The earliest is a Cupisnique bottle, The Contortionist of Puémape (1500–500 BCE), found in a tomb at Puémape as an offering. A Cajamarca tripod plate (950–1470 CE) features spiral motifs symbolizing life and death. From the colonial era, the Cusco School’s Trifacial Trinity (ca. 1750–1770) depicts a three-faced Christ, a theme banned by Pope Benedict XIV in 1745 but still produced in rural areas. Another Cusco School work, Lord of the Earthquakes (1740–1760), reflects Counter-Reformation imagery. Republican art includes Francisco Laso’s The Three Races (ca. 1859), showing Black, Indigenous, and White figures, and Luis Montero’s monumental The Funerals of Atahualpa (1867), painted in Italy and weighing 200 kg. Julia Codesido’s Ayacuchan Vendor (ca. 1927) represents the Indigenismo movement. Modern works include Fernando de Szyszlo’s Puka Wamani (1968), titled in Quechua, and Jorge Eduardo Eielson’s Infinite Landscape of the Coast of Peru (1961), part of a six-piece series. The list concludes with Susana Torres’s Huaco Self-Portrait (2006), a nod to traditional pottery. The article encourages visiting MALI.