Proclamation de l'indépendance du Pérou

Jose de San Martin proclaimed Peru independent on the 28th of July, 1821, in the main square of Lima. Juan Lepiani painted this grand version of the moment more than 80 years later, working in Rome around 1904, long after every witness was gone. That distance shaped his choices. Lacking reliable portraits of the men on the platform, he turned most of them away from us, their faces hidden, recognisable only by a posture or a uniform. San Martin stands at the centre, lifting the new Peruvian flag. Lepiani also moved the scene onto a balcony of the city hall, though the real ceremony took place on a stage down in the square. The one figure who turns to meet your eye is the painter himself, who slipped his own likeness into the crowd.