Views of the Hill and Fort made by the Inkas of Peru in Cuzco

1778

Arechaga y Calvo, Ramón de

Seville, ESP, Archivo General de las Indias (current location)

This fanciful view of Cuzco shows it as a mix of past and present. Modern observers standing on a hill in the foreground look over to the ancient fortress of Saqsawáman. On this ruin, figures representing the royal Inka of centuries past appear.

Saqsawáman was an Inka fortress, built on a hill overlooking Cuzco. It is visible in the zig-zag walls along the top of the hill. Although some details of the scene are anachronistic, the scattered boulders evoke the dismantling of the fortress of Saqsawáman, which transpired across the colonial period. The author of the map comments that the structure would be more famous, had the stones not been taken to create the buildings of colonial Cuzco. Many of the figures are anachronistic. Along the wall at right, the Inka warrior prepares to launch a stone using a sling, a traditional weapon in the Andes. It is not clear who he aims to hit. At the top of the hill, elite Inka women were protected (and identified) by elaborate parasols made out of bird feathers. But the practice was not current in the 18th century. The city of Cuzco stretches off the left edge of the map, sloping down the hill and away from Saqsawáman.

This city view has been painted in inks and watercolors on paper. It measures ca. 49 x 60.5 cm (ca. 19 x 24 inches). The legend, which floats atop the scene forms part of the original document.

This map was made by a Spanish soldier, Sargento Mayor de Infanteria, Ramón de Arechaga y Calvo, and he titled his work, Views of the Hill and Fort made by the Inkas of Peru in Cuzco (Vistas del cerro y fortaleza fabricada por los Yncas del Peru en la Ciudad del Cuzco.) Little is known about him, but other maps made by him appear in Peruvian archives. He made this one as a commission from the Spanish Viceroy of Peru. Ironically, the Andeans that he includes in this scene walk placidly through the landscape, whereas the actual residents of Cuzco would soon be embroiled in the violent uprising led by Tupac Amaru II.

España. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura, y Deporte, Archivo General de Indias

Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.

Castro, Ignacio de. 1978. Relación del Cuzco. C. D. Valcárcel, ed. Lima: Universidad Nacional de San Marcos, Dirección Universitaria de Biblioteca y Publicaciones.

Dean, Carolyn S. 2010. A Culture of Stone: Inka Perspectives on Rock. Durham: Duke University Press.

Kagan, Richard. 1998. Imágenes urbanas del mundo hispánico, 1493-1780. Madrid: Viso.

Kagan, Richard. 2000. Urban Images of the Hispanic World, 1493-1793. New Haven, Connecticut and London: Yale University Press.