"Caspicara was the most renowned sculptor of the eighteenth-century Andean world. Yet many works that are attributed to this Indigenous artist cannot be firmly documented as he is nearly absent in traditional archival records. Susan Webster seeks to analyze not only the visual imagery and material culture of his many works, but she also seeks to lay the foundation for understanding how scholars can revive the life and records of artists and other historical figures--many of whom were Indigenous in this period--with different methodologies. By cultivating artistic theory, popular religious devotion, and specific styles of sculpture, Webster's examination of the labor and workshop practices of this period contextualize the extensive commercial networks that existed within Quito and emanated beyond it. Webster explores the reason why authors constructed an almost completely fictional life story and canon for this artist that continued for two centuries, how this story fueled the agendas and goals of these authors in melding the colonial past with a newly independent country that could measure itself against western European culture, and as a potent story for tourists. She then considers the ways in which Caspicara's work was at the center of debates of sculpture versus painting in Quito. These debates and their development in the city also add context to notions of authorship, and how it was documented (or not). By exploring the professional world where he worked, Webster's analysis of Indigenous sculptors and their family networks of labor and apprenticeship in the arts allow us to understand the changing workforce and materials for sculptures. This analysis also reveals what day-to-day life may have been for Caspicara, and how this routine informed the artistic choices available to him. Archival materials indirectly offer glimpses into how patrons regarded Caspicara and his work, and how the work of others later embellished or altered his original vision. Throughout the chapters, visuality, materials, and reception challenge the typical obsession of art historians, museum curators, and auction houses in their hunger to attribute authorship in ways that increase the value, both for prestige and monetary reasons, and in ways that end up obscuring authorship and intent"--

An examination of sculpture and authorship in eighteenth-century Quito that documents Caspicara as a participant in the innovative artistic production of the city’s workshops and its widespread commerce of polychrome sculptures. Who is Caspicara? Nothing is known of Caspicara’s life, and not a single sculpture has been documented as his work. Yet traditional histories laud him as a prolific Indigenous sculptor in eighteenth-century Quito who created exquisite polychrome figures and became a national artistic icon. Drawing on extensive archival, historical, and object research, Susan Verdi Webster peels away layers of historiographical fabrication to reveal what we do and do not know about Caspicara and his work. Rather than being a solitary master, Caspicara collaborated with other, largely Indigenous artists in Quito’s protoindustrial workshops, manufacturing sculptures now credited to him alone. The high quality of Quito sculptures produced by anonymous artists turned the city into a hub of wide-ranging commerce in religious icons. The art world and post-independence Ecuadorians have lionized the one named sculptor, Caspicara, according to the Western model of the artist-genius, amplifying the market for works bearing his name and creating a national hero on par with European masters. Lost in this process were the artists themselves. Webster returns to their world, detailing their methods and labor and, for the first time, documenting a sculpture made by Caspicara.