World Views
Anonymous, La Virgen del Cerro
Oil on convas. 18th century. Museo de la Casa Nacional de Moneda.
This painting, created in colonial South America (then the Viceroyalty of Peru), blends Catholic influences brought by Spanish colonizers with subtle elements of pre-conquest Andean beliefs. At first glance, it shows the Virgin Mary crowned by Jesus and God the Father, with the Pope and Spanish Emperor beside a Western globe. But there may be another “earth” here: Mary’s body merges with a mountain, resembling Pachamama, the Andean “World Mother” who embodies nature’s vitality. Adding complexity, the mountain features mining shafts—hinting at the silver mines of Potosí, which were brutally exploited under colonial rule.
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights
Exterior panels only; closed state. c1490–1510. Oil on oak panels. Prado Museum Madrid.
This image is part of a famous triptych by the Flemish artist Hieronymus Bosch. These are the outer panels, visible only when the triptych is closed, showing the third day of creation from the Bible. At this point, God has separated land from water and commanded plants to grow, though animals haven’t yet been created. In the top left, God sits on a cloud, pointing to an open book, possibly a Bible. Beside him is a Latin phrase from Psalms 33:9, meaning: “For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.”
For context, the triptych’s interior panels below:
Below is Bosch’s The Seven Deadly Sins and Four Last Things.
Abu’l Hasan, Jahangir shoots Malik ‘Ambar and embraces Shah ‘Abbas.
c1620, gouache on paper.
These pictures were painted by the court artist Abu’l Hasan in the Mughal Empire (modern-day India). They were commissioned by Abu’l Hasan’s patron, the Emperor Jahangir. The name Jahangir—which he gave to himself upon his ascension to the throne—means “world-seizer.”
The image of the left depicts Emperor Jahangir shooting one of his rivals, the Ethiopian mercenary and statesman Malik Ambar, with an arrow. This never happened: the event is imaginary. The artwork blends Western and Islamic iconography. Jahangir stands on a Western globe, while the image also incorporates elements of Islamic cosmology, such as the world being supported by an ox and a fish.
The image on the right shows Emperor Jahangir embracing another of his rivals, the Iranian emperor Shah ‘Abbas.
Alexandr Petrovich Apsit, First of May. Workers of the world have nothing to lose but their chains, but they have the whole world to gain.
1919, printed poster.
This poster was made in the Soviet Union by the artist and designer Alexandr Apsit. Created in support of the Bolshevik cause during the Russian Civil War (1917–23). A crowd of revolutionary workers holds a nighttime assembly. A vision of the earth appears in the sky. The banner billowing around the earth reads “Workers of the World: Unite!”
Below: Walter Crane, International Solidarity of Labour, 1889.
Below: Walter Crane, The Triumph of Labour, 1891
