This particular depiction of Creation, which leaves out Adam and Eve (also created on the sixth day, along with the land animals) is particularly remarkable in its extraordinary iconography, rarely to be seen in European workshops, and even less so in their Cuzco counterparts. What was most common, either as a series or individual work, was to depict the fifth day (the creation of the birds and sea animals) on one side, and the sixth day (land animals and Adam and Eve) on the other. It was also not unusual to see works in which both days were condensed, treating them as one whole. Finally, there were depictions selectively combining the two days and which, as such, stand as a peculiarity within the Andean iconographic repertoire and as an alternative reading of the events narrated in Genesis. The work we are addressing here falls into this last category, sharing its compositional model with the Creation canvas housed at the Monastery of Santa Catalina, Cuzco.

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