Santo Domingo church
 Although the Dominicans came to Quito as early as
1541, they only began work on their priory in 1580, under the guidance
of Francisco Becerra, the Spanish architect. Work was completed in the
first half of the seventeenth century. There is a separate chapel beside
the church itself, dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, scene of the
foundation, in later years, of the most important of the city's Guilds.
Both the church and the chapel were finely decorated, with altar pieces,
statues and paintings.
Little remains of this early decoration, and now only
the mudéjar style wall facings are preserved. The chapel of the Rosary
is another matter, however, and it has an exuberant rococo altar piece,
is decorated , with golden figures against a scarlet background, columns
with intermingled leaf and anthropomorphic designs, complicated
pediments - all of which goes to make up a decorative whole of unusual
complexity and beauty.
Fray Pedro Bedón worked in Santo Domingo from 1586
onwards, and he can rightly be considered the founder of the Quito
school of painting. The carvings and paintings of this ingenious monk
can still be seen in the chapel, and include an oil of St. Nicholas of
Tolentino, the relief of the blessed Reginald receiving the Dominican
scapulary from the hands of the Virgin, wonderfully carved in gold
polychrome.
 Diego de Robles, who came from Toledo and was the
author of the most admirable figures of the Virgin -those of Guápulo
and Quinche- carved the figures of St. Pius V and St. Antony of Florence
for the choir. They are now to be seen in the Dominican Museum, along
with other carvings. Later the art treasures of
the Dominicans were to be enriched by magnificent works by the great
Quito sculptors: the figure of Santo Domingo de Guzmán by Padre Carlos,
that of San Juan de Dios, by Caspicara, and Legarda's St. Thomas
Aquinas. These treasures are to be seen in the museum on the north side
of the lower cloister.
Other figures carved for the church and the chapel of
the Dominicans remind us of deeply-rooted popular devotion. These
include the beautiful nativity scene by Caspicara, with the Child lying
down, fast asleep, and the Virgin and St. Joseph tenderly watching over
Him, utterly absorbed. Both these figures are very richly painted. The
Madonna and Child, with a Virgin of mixed race, her serious face lost in
thought. The Virgin of the Dawn, frequently carried in the dawn
processions known as "Rosaries of the Dawn". The priory itself contains
a cloister with a very fine first floor supported by sturdy octagonal
pillars and arches, and the cloister surrounds a charming garden area.
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