Quiteño elites and pictorial patronage during the Baroque the series of the Life of Saint Augustine and the Spiritual Exercises

Among the pictorial series of the Quito Baroque, two stand out funded by multiple members of the local elites. Although there are other testimonies of this practice in Quito, the series of the Life of Saint Augustine and the Spiritual Exercises distinguish for their conservation and for including relevant information about their patrons, which helps to clarify the impact they had on Quito’s society and their datation. In this paper we study the patrons, investigating their social status, and the importance that the painters’ contact with the people who funded the paintings had in their future careers