page_title: Bernardo Bitti
section_title: Works
hierarchical_section_title: Bernardo Bitti / Works
caption_attribution_description: Português: Oração no Horto das Oliveiras
context_page_description: Democrito Bernardo Bitti was an Italian Jesuit priest and painter. He introduced Mannerism to Peru, where he went on a Jesuit mission after having studied in Rome. On his way to Peru, Bitti traveled through Spain, where he became influenced by Sevillian painting, especially that of Luis de Morales. Bitti arrived in Peru in 1575 and started painting for churches first in Lima and from 1583 in Cusco. His works in Lima include the typically Mannerist Coronation of the Virgin and The Virgin of the Candelaria for St. Peter's Church. The Immaculate Conception was a recurring theme in his paintings, one of which is in the Monastery of the Merced in Cusco. In addition to Mannerism, his works reflect ideas of the Counter-Reformation and religious education of the natives. After 1584, Bitti traveled all over South America, painting where he went. His mobile lifestyle was a testament to his popularity with the Jesuits, but it led to Bitti's being unable to set up a workshop or have apprentices. Nevertheless, his influence in the region was immense, and resulted in Mannerism persisting in South America even when it had fallen out of favor in Europe.
context_section_description: Most of Bitti's works are on the life and persons of Jesus and Virgin Mary. Especially numerous are his works on the theme of the Immaculate Conception, including a noteworthy one in Cusco. Bitti was painting for a dual audience of European-born immigrants and newly converted natives. He was also under the constraint of carefully crafting his works to conform with the requirements of the post Council of Trent era of Counter-Reformation.
  His work is representative of Mannerism, characterized by elongated figures with slender limbs and delicate fingers in posing gracefully in condensed compositions. Drapery is characteristically crisp and "paper-like". The colors are saturated, often pastel blues and pinks. Bitti's Mannerism, however, "lacked the confusion, erudition, and sometimes erotic sway" that was typical of the style in his native Italy. Bitti painted in tempera, "with the delicacy of the followers of Michelangelo and Raphael". Lines are dominant and the colors are cool, exposing Bitti's kinship with the works of Giorgio Vasari. Although there is no contemporary material to conclude if Bitti's work was well-received, this is likely the case because he was sent to so many locations in South America. Today, Bitti's work is considered skillfully executed.
  Coronation of the Virgin in St. Peter's Church is centered on the Trinity, below which Mary is found. Presentation is typically Mannerist in elongated limbs and elegant poses, with mostly soft blue and pink colors. There is experimentation with the colors, which change in shadows and folds of drapery. Floating in the clouds are angels and cherubs, with considerable variation in postures, with figura serpentinata all over. The painting, however, differs from typical Mannerism in one important regard. It is markedly symmetrical and focused. As such, it emphasizes the Trinity in accordance with the didactic mission of the Jesuits and in the spirit of the Counter-Reformation. Bitti painted the persons of the Trinity as clearly distinct: God the Father and Son are of different ages, and the Holy Spirit takes the form of a dove. This was to avoid potential confusion that could arise in the eyes of natives when looking at paintings that portray the Trinity as a three-faced man or three near-identical men.
  The Virgin of the Candelaria, also at St. Peter's, features Mary holding infant Jesus while angels provide light with candles. The dramatic light it features is typical of the works of Bitti and something that he probably adopted from his time in Spain.
  Immaculate Conception, an altarpiece in the Monastery of the Merced in Cusco, is typical of Bitti. Mary, with sharp features, is set against a background that does not reveal a setting. In the painting, made for devotion, she is at the same time accessible to the devotee and exists in an otherworldly realm. The colors are cool and pastel, and drapery folds in the typical brittle fashion. The painting relies on visual exaggeration reminiscent of the work of Italian Mannerists like Bronzino and Parmigianino, but without any eroticism.
  Agony in the Garden, painted around 1600 and now in the Lima Art Museum, has an elongated and graceful Christ figure and an angel, both in pastel draperies that seem to ignore both gravity and the shape of their bodies.
caption: Agony in the Garden
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