Page 274 - Perú indígena y virreinal

as the Palace of the Inquisition, that was probably originally an open chapel. Any stylistic study of all these buildings, rebuilt both in Cusco and in Lima following the respective earthquakes mentioned above, enable us to gain an idea of the magnificence of these cities.
The convents at Huamanga, Cusco, Lima and Arequipa all constitute what we might call “a city within a city”, a world apart and a retreat, in which the virtues of the spouses of the Lord represented the most refined dimension of colonial society. The Convent of Santa Clara, built on the site of the former Convent of Inca Virgins, is a typical convent featuring a church with two doors, in the same way as those of Andalusia, Mexico and other parts of Latin America. The Convent of Dominican Nuns of Santa Catalina de Siena in Arequipa is of considerable importance, this being the model for the early Latin American convents. Founded in 1576, this building, in addition to incorporating a church and a cloister featuring a shared dormitory and a patio devoted to initiates, presents an entire inner neighbourhood or series of winding streets and tiny squares, where we find a series of cells of different sizes, shapes and colours. There is nothing more picturesque than this miniature city, with its tiny doll-like houses. In order to understand its origins, we must go back to the primitive hermit-like life that existed in the desert during Early Christianity. Flora Tristán, Gauguin’s grandmother, whose ancestors came from Arequipa, described the life inside this quite unique convent in an account of a trip she made to the city of her forebears.
The various periods of Peruvian architecture are linked to the reconstruction work that was carried out after the earthquakes. They also depend on the personality of the corresponding viceroys, bishops and developers, not to mention the status of the town or city and the materials employed. A bishop such as Mollinedo y Angulo from Madrid was essential in promoting the marvellous Baroque architecture of the late 17th Century in Cusco, in the same way that the Viceroys Superunda and Amat were fundamental in promoting Rococo, French-influenced and Italianized styles in Lima during the 18th Century. From this period we can find a series of stately mansions such as the Palace Torre Tagle and the Quinta de la Presa, with their wide wooden lattice-work balconies, forming “streets in the air”, according to Antonio de la Calancha. At the end of the Baroque period, Priest Matías Maestro, who removed all altarpieces featuring Solomonic gilded columns from churches, replacing them with cold and bare Neo-Classical altars, designed the General Cemetery of Lima. To the passing of time and changes in taste we must add the substantial contribution made by native Indian influences in the mountain areas. The “hybrid” art of the Andean region, studied by the art historians Mesa and Gilbert, must also be taken into account. Mermaids and female figures dressed in elaborate garments and playing musical instruments such as the “charango” or five-stringed guitar, are the most significant witnesses to this influence. Pomata, Zepita, Puno and Juli are unmistakable architectural undertakings, in which the use of shallow-relief stone-carving accentuates the extraordinary aspects of the native imagination, influencing motifs and themes taken from the Western Classical and Mannerist repertoire. In the case of Arequipa, a city located at the foot of the volcano Misti that has always suffered from earthquakes and whose low buildings are made of an extremely porous and light white volcanic stone, the profuse and shallow-relief stone-carving on the city’s buildings has been compared to the façade- altarpieces of Baroque architecture in Lima and Cusco, leading Arequipa’s façades to be classified as hybrid frontages or tapestry-façades. The dense decoration on the façade of the Cathedral of Cajamarca presents a peculiar variety of Peruvian Baroque embellishment.
We cannot conclude this brief look at Peruvian cities and architecture without referring to nature, to the close links that exist between landscape and the buildings constructed by the Peruvians. The “dry and grand mountain ranges”, the valleys and mountain-sides, lakes and peaks of the Andes impressed the chroniclers who accompanied the conquistadors. This sense of amazement and admiration for such an imposing and uneven landscape has always caught the eye of foreign travellers. It is sufficient to read their accounts in order to understand the astonishment and fascination they feel when crossing the Andes by plane for the first time or walking in the Peruvian mountains. A sense of the sublime takes hold of them in view of these natural sights, that exceed anything they might imagine from reading or from photographic testimonies. Let us cite two modern examples. The first is an account by the French writer we mentioned above, Flora Tristán, and the second an account by the German father of contemporary geography, Alexander von Humboldt.
When Flora Tristán, having disembarked in Islay (Peru) and crossed the desert that led from the coast to Arequipa, first laid eyes on the three large volcanoes that formed the backdrop for the city of her ancestors in the distance, she wrote the following: “My eyes wandered over those silvery crests, followed them until they merged with the bluish bulwark; they contemplated those high mountains, an endless chain, whose thousands of snow-covered peaks sprang alive with the sun’s reflections. The infinite penetrated all my senses and God rose up before me in all his power, in all his splendour. Then my gaze turned to the three volcanoes of Arequipa, joined at the base, that represent chaos and confusion, the three snow-capped summits reaching up to the clouds and reflecting the sun’s rays and sometimes spouting flames over the land. My soul was drawn to God, to his outbursts of love. Never had I been so moved by such a sight”.
Upon reaching the Andes, Alexander von Humboldt, in his Aspects of Nature in Different Lands and Different Climates, experienced “a harsh impression produced by the wild mountain ranges” and lauded “the admirable remains of the great road built by the Incas, that gigantic work that established communications with all the provinces of their empire”. From the highest summits of the Sierra de Cajamarca, a desire to see the Pacific Ocean grew in him. However, the weather conditions prevented this. Finding himself at such a high altitude above sea-level, his sight “was lost in the void as if from the top of a balloon” and he was able to see “but a few crags, diverse shapes, that stood out like islands in a sea of clouds and disappeared at once”. Those who have scaled the heights of the Andes know that the clouds will very often be below their line of vision. Von Humboldt, overexcited and impatient, wanted to make out the infinite. Finally, one day, as the clouds surrounding him suddenly parted, he was able to see the entire panorama. Under a pure blue sky, with radiant clarity and in the most transparent atmosphere, he was able to observe the undulations of the entire mountain range and, on the horizon, the Pacific Ocean. He compared his excitement with that of Vasco Núñez de Balboa when he discovered a hitherto unknown ocean. The famous author of the Cosmos then understood the splendour of Peru, the child of the Sun.
the ways of art
Rafael López Guzmán
The artistic forms and techniques used in Spain, and therefore in Europe during the Peruvian Viceroyalty were introduced, modified and later either accepted or rejected in Latin America to a different extent depending on the specific regions, pre-existing cultures or forms of development across the new continent. Whilst it is true that the European aesthetic was one of the Old World’s most important contributions to the New, such an affirmation holds numerous nuances.
In the case of the region that concerns us here, Peru, it is the itinerant artists, drifting into Lima or Cusco with their original poetic vision who are responsible for the creation of centres of influence and the synthesis with local practices. This does not, however, mean a simple mixture of different components with a greater or lesser quantity of each, but the basis for the development of a process of cultural appropriation and re-interpretation.
Bernardo Bitti (1548–1610), Angelino Medoro (1567–1633) and Mateo Pérez de Alesio (1547–1607) are those who introduced Italian mannerist forms to Peru in the last quarter of the 16th Century and the first quarter of the 17th. The name of Bitti became synonymous with Jesuit artistic expression, and, by extension, the spokesman for the aesthetic norms laid down by the Council of Trent. Meanwhile, Seville sculptors such as Juan Bautista Vázquez, Roque Balduque, Juan Martínez Montañés and Juan de Mesa were sending their work over to Peru and others like Pedro de Noguera, Martín Alonso de Mesa, Gaspar de la Cueva, Luis de Espíndola o Luis Ortiz de Vargas were making the journey to the new World.
ENGLISH TEXTS [ 281 ]