The Painter, Mateo Mexía, and his Works in the Convent of San Francisco de Quito
The religious painting of Ecuador started very early. In fact, the first Franciscan friars who accompanied the conquistadores brought the visual arts to this new territory. Fr. Jodoco Ricke de Marselaer, with another priest, Fr. Pedro Goseal, or Gosseal, founded a school of art in 1534. In 1553 this school was raised by Fr. Francisco de Morales to the category of a college with the title of Colegio de San Andres. In this school, until its extinction in 1675, a great part of the painters of the region were educated, not only Indians but also Creoles. The three main influences which molded this Quito school of painting were the following: It was born under the Flemish style at the Franciscan school of San Andres; then it was influenced by the Spanish painting of the second half of the sixteenth century, and lastly it absorbed the teachings of two Italian masters. The influence of these three currents was felt in various ways: the Flemish appeared through the first Franciscans and through the engravings they constantly used in the composition of paintings; the Spanish appeared more directly in the style of the paintings themselves, and the Italian current, the last and most powerful, was the one which triumphed in all of America at the beginning of the seventeenth century.