Kislak Talks

Carol Damian: Soldier Angels in the Viceroyalty of Peru

With their beautiful garments of lace and brocade, jewels, feathered hats and wings, halberds, and shields, the remarkable paintings of angels created in the Viceroyalty of Peru are highly original artistic and religious creations. Their fancy clothing derives from that of criollo and Andean nobles and aristocrats, and the soldier angels enjoyed widespread popularity throughout the Altiplano of colonial Peru and Bolivia. The Jay I. Kislak Collection has two seventeenth-century paintings of angels, each depicted with military weapons. In this online talk, Dr. Carol Damian, Curator of the Kislak Center at MDC, delves into the subject of angels, the distinctive iconography of the South American genre, and the features that make the Kislak paintings unique.

Dr. Carol Damian is an art historian, former Professor of Art History in the School of Art and Art History at Florida International University, and former Director and Chief Curator of the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum at FIU. She has contributed to numerous publications and lectures frequently on Latin American and Caribbean art, and the local art scene. She is currently Curator of the Kislak Center, part of the Miami Dade College Special Collections, housed at the Freedom Tower; and of the Chapel of La Merced Colonial Collection at Corpus Christi in Miami.

Kislak Center programs are made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners. They are sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Miami Herald is a media sponsor of Kislak Center programming.