The Last Supper

In Marcos Zapata's Last Supper inside Cusco Cathedral, Jesus and the twelve apostles are gathered around a long table. On the plate in front of Jesus is a roast guinea pig. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the sacrificial animal at Passover was the lamb. In pre-conquest Inca ceremonies, the sacrificial animal was the cuy: the Andean guinea pig. Zapata, an Indigenous Andean painter working in colonial Cusco in 1753, made the substitution deliberately. The tumbler cups on the table hold chicha, Andean maize beer. The Passover has been Andeanised. Now at Cusco Cathedral, Cusco