Angel Term Form With Arquebus In Orange
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Representing celestial, aristocratic, and military beings all at once, these angels were created after the first missionizing period, as Christian missionary orders persistently sought to terminate the practice of pre-Hispanic religions and enforce Catholicism.
The Latin inscription of Archangel with Gun, Asiel Timor Dei indicates the name of the angel, Asiel, and a particular quality: Fears God.
Church of Calamarca, about 60 km from La Paz, Bolivia, contains the most complete existing series of ángeles arcabuceros, including the Asiel Timor Dei by Master of Calamarca (around 1680), that are considered notable examples of the type.
These paintings were produced in the ancient viceroyalty of Peru during the Colonial period (16th, 17th and 18th centuries) in workshops that carried out custom-made orders, which at times were destined for distant places.
By 1550, arquebuses known as tanegashima, teppō (鉄砲) or hinawaju (火縄銃) were being produced in large numbers in Japan. The tanegashima seem to have utilized snap matchlocks based on firearms from Goa, India, which was captured by the Portuguese in 1510.
The arquebus was an early type of firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries, characterized by a matchlock mechanism that ignited gunpowder to fire a projectile.
Connected to the lock lever was a trigger, which lowered the match into a priming pan when squeezed, igniting the priming powder, causing a flash to travel through the touch hole, also igniting the gunpowder within the barrel, and propelling the bullet out the muzzle.
Church of Calamarca, about 60 km from La Paz, Bolivia, contains the most complete existing series of ángeles arcabuceros, including the Asiel Timor Dei by Master of Calamarca (around 1680), that are considered notable examples of the type.
The arquebus used a matchlock system for firing the weapon. In an extremely simplified version of how this works, the soldier would carry a piece of slow-burning rope, which acted as a match, held by a serpentine lever attached to the trigger.
Paintings of angels with guns were perhaps representative of both the power of the Spaniards over indigenous people and protection offered to faithful Christians.
