In Peru too, as in the other South American states, the Spanish occupation introduced an extraordinarily rich and overloaded architectural style. Typical examples of this are the cathedrals of Lima and Arequipa, the convent of the Mercede and the church of the Society of Jesus in Cuzco. Generally the facade of the churches is very long and low, interrupted by two massive towers, the portals often decorated all around by a very dense and minute ornamentation of stone or stucco. The profane architecture, very simple, takes on a picturesque aspect due to the courtyards and cloisters, to superimposed arcades and loggias, and to the abundance of light or heavy balconies and verandas, smooth or decorated with carvings and inlays.
Among the secular buildings, the house of Perricholi, the mistress of Viceroy Amat, and the palace of the Marquis of Torre Tagle, from the 12th century, are particularly worthy of mention in Lima. XVIII, now the seat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, magnificently preserved with its coffered ceilings, wooden inlays and majolica tiles decoration.
According to topschoolsintheusa, the very intense activity of the wood carvers was able to take place not only in the verandas and ceilings of the houses, but especially in the altars and pulpits of the churches, dazzling with rich gilding. We mention the altars of the churches of S. Marcello and S. Pietro in Lima, the main altar of the church of S. Agostino in Trujillo, the pulpit of the latter church and, above all, the very rich one, of the church of S. Biagio. in Cuzco. A masterpiece of Peruvian carving is the choir of San Biagio in Cuzco.
The Peruvian painting of the colonial period is devoid of its own characters. The artists limited themselves to imitating the paintings of the Flemish, Spanish and Italian schools that were imported to Peru to adorn the altars of the churches that were built since 1535 in Lima and in other Peruvian cities. Among the industrious painters in Peru we must remember Mateo Pérez de Alesio, born and died in Rome (about 1547-1600), but probably of Spanish origin, Matías Maestre, author of some Madonnas in the National History Museum of Lima, of the Apotheosis of Santa Rosa and San Toribio in the chapel of the Lima cemetery, Juan Moyen, Cristóbal Lozano, Angelino Medoro, Luis Espínola y Villavicencio, Francisco Martínez, Simón Inca, Andrés Ruiz de Seravia, Pedro Díaz, to whom we owe, among other things, a Santa Rosa (1810), a San Francesco Solano and several paintings of Madonnas in the Lima museum. Known Peruvian painters of the century. XIX are: Ignacio Merino, born in 1818 in S. Miguel de Piura, died in 1876 in Paris, where he lived for more than twenty years (his paintings, mostly of atoric subjects, in the Lima museum), Luis Montero (around 1830 -1868), pupil of I. Merino and M. Fortuny (his main work in the museum of Lima: The funeral of Atahualpa) and Francisco Lazo, pupil in Paris first of Peru Delaroche, then of De Claize. Among the sculptors of the century. XIX emerge Gaspar Ricardo Suárez and Tamborini, the latter known for his wood carvings.
Even today, as in the century. XIX, painting and sculpture are predominantly influenced by French art.
