In the absence of iron and many other utility materials which are taken for granted today, pottery in the ancient Andean civilizations was adapted to a very wide range of practical functions. One of its principal uses was for the preparation, serving, and storage of food and drink. It was also used for ceremonial purposes and was buried with the dead as mortuary gifts. Most, though not all, the pottery which has survived in museums and private collections was recovered from burials. It has been suggested, though this is not certain, that potters were mainly women. The wheel was unknown in Pre-Colombian America and none of the pottery shows the mechanical precision of wheel-made wares.  

Diego Quispe Tito was considered the father of the Cuzco School of painting.  He lived from 1611-1681 in the province of Cuzco in Peru.  He was born of Incan nobility.  His painting was influenced by Spanish and Flemish art.  Best known for incorporating gilding and spacious landscapes filled with angels and birds.  

Christ Calling Apostles Peter and Andrew (Pisces) is part of his Zodiac series, a series of paintings that were copies of Adriaeen Collaert's (Flemmish) engravings.  The zodiac signs were tied to parables in the life of Christ.  These were intended for teaching religion in Peru, where worship of the sun, moon, and stars was still practiced; they were designed to encourage worship of Christ in place of the zodiac in Europe and in place of indigenous religions in Peru. 

Established in the second half of the 17th century, the Cuzco School comprised indigenous and mestizo artists who looked to European Catholic painting traditions, but whose work is differentiated by the use of bright colours and elaborate gold leaf, and often includes depictions of native flora and fauna.   

​The term mola means bird plumage and clothing and consists of designs woven into cotton in a sense.  A woman plans out a design and either keeps the image in her head or draws it onto fabric.  She then stitches several layers of contrasting colored panels of fabric on top of each other and then cuts out her design.  The edges of the pattern are then folded under and the edges are sewn together.  The whole process is then repeated to exposed additional colors. 

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Originated in Panama and Columbia, the mola is the decendent of Kuna women who would paint their bodies with designs that were later transferred to weaving with cloth from Europeans.  These were used for panels on the backs of women’s blouses. 

The Huichols live in the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains in Mexico. They speak a language similar to the language spoken by the ancient Aztecs, They practice a religion that is very, very old. The part of Mexico where the Huichols live is very hard to reach. There are few roads and the Huichols travel from place to place by walking.  After the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, the Huichols retreated into the rugged mountains of northern Jalisco and Nayarit. While nominally converted to Christianity in the colonial period by Franciscan missionaries, most of the native Huichol culture managed to survive intact due to the isolation, and because the area lacked mineral or other resources of interest to the Spanish.  

Born in 1942, Santos de la Torre is probably the most famous modern day Huitchol artist.  Famous works are on display all over the world, from the Louvre in Paris, to the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, and throughout Mexico.  His works focus on the Huitchol cosmology and are meant to be read, like a story, from the bottom to the top.