Inside The Americas - The Quito School

“Inlay design is the art of encrusting wood in a piece of furniture, large or small” explains José Luis Jiménez, who tells us all about the art of the Quito School in today’s Inside the Americas program. Working in restoration, sculpture and woodcarving in the historic district of Quito, Jimenez specializes in small chests with secret drawers that were used for storing valuables during the colonial period. They are called bargueños, and each piece is unique, he says. The Quito School is an art movement that has existed since the Spanish conquest and mainly features religious artwork with renaissance and baroque elements. In the mid 1550s, teachers from Spain directed indigenous artists who incorporated their own symbols, facial features and regional plants into this fascinating art, which became slightly more secular after the struggle for the independence of Ecuador from Spain.