South American artist Gregorio Vázquez de Arce y Ceballos (1638-1711) was the most important painter of the Spanish Colonial era in Columbia. He worked during an era dominated by the Hispano-American Baroque style that flourished from 1650 to 1750. Vázquez has come to be regarded as the greatest painter to come from Colombia. Most of his paintings are religious in nature, with subjects that include the life of Christ and of the Virgin, the saints, and scenes of the New Testament.

Gregorio Vázquez de Arce y Ceballos was born May 9, 1638, in Bogota, Columbia. Raised in that city, he grew up in the Creole society that first settled there in 1630. He was descended from a family of Andalusian ancestry, his family emigrating from Seville, Spain, settling in South America in the late 16th century.

The area where Vázquez grew up possessed a vibrant...