Soporte tela, pigmentos y moldura como manifestaciones de identidad cultural. Un estudio desde el cuadro San Francisco niño reparte el pan a los pobres (Cusco – Chile, ca. 1668–1684)

This article highlights the importance of applying material and technical studies to the pictorial heritage of Cusco, especially in situations where written accounts of the resources and creative processes involved in its production are limited. Through the analysis of samples of the physical order of the painting San Francisco distributing bread to the poor as a child, exhibited in the Museo Colonial de San Francisco in Santiago de Chile, the material iconological method was used to identify links with the European pictorial tradition and South Andean contributions and inventions. From this specific study, a way is presented by which a series of laboratory examinations focused on recognising the techniques and materials used in viceregal painting can provide valuable information about the context and society that gave them form and meaning.