Governador de los puentes, by Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala

Part of El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno, Governador de los puentes de este reino is a fine-line image created by Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala as part of a chapter that discusses Incas and their day-to-day activities and social ordering. This image approaches the subject by focusing on one of its most important technologies and physical infrastructures: the suspension bridges that connected villages.

Some of these bridges are still used to this day; others have deteriorated and fell, although every year local citizens and descendants from the Inca rebuild some of them. They still follow the traditional techniques and ways of building it. These bridges are usually made of braided fiber cables, and some of these fibers are as thick as an adult man's chest. The technology impressed Spanish conquistadores in 1532, and is still impressive to this day.

The painting shows the governador de los puentes (or the person in charge of bridges) as its main character. Apart from his figure, our attention is drawn by the environment behind him, which displays the irregular landscape, and by the person crossing one of the bridges.

Size conversion table

A4: 8.3" x 11.7" ≈ 21cm x 30cm

A3: 11.7" x 16.5" ≈ 30cm x 40cm

A2: 16.5" x 23.4" ≈ 40cm x 60cm

A1: 23.4" x 33.1" ≈ 60cm x 84cm