Page 277 - Perú indígena y virreinal

Iberian Peninsula, such as people on horseback or bulls. Two fine examples in this respect are the so-called “Bulls of Pupuja and Pukara”, receptacles that were used in branding ceremonies, or that typically would be found on tables, along with a cross. In reality, for this latter use the two bull shaped pieces tended to contain holy water and chicha—fermented corn liquor, thus protecting one’s herd and one’s family at the same time.
The use of figures shaped from clay or straw, and later modelled with plaster and fabric and placed on a wood or maguey support formed the basis for a large part of Peruvian sculpture. In fact, the statue of the Christ of the Tremors in Cusco Cathedral, according to legend donated by Charles V, fits this description of a possible pre-Hispanic technique. Techniques were maintained and adapted, a process accepted by an artist like Bitti, who created the first reredo, or altarpiece, for the Jesuits of Cusco, with extraordinary reliefs that included Saint Sebastian, Mary Magdalene and Saint Ignatius of Antioch, today conserved in the Regional Museum of Cusco in the House of the Inca Garcilaso).
In the same way, mural painting, whilst coinciding with European fashions, stayed true to its pre-Columbine past, above all, to pre-Inca culture. Murals tended to be painted on a dried mud base that had been covered with various coats of whitewash and finished with a final coat of fine plaster upon which the design was painted using pigment thickened with animal based adhesive. Wall faces thus became vast canvasses on which precise techniques intermingled with a decorative element originating in prints, depicting the immediate natural environment or indigenous symbolism. These paintings adorned the walls of both religious buildings— churches, cloisters or monastery cells and of secular, civic institutions.
The proliferation of hagiographs in painting was due to their essential model for an active, evangelising church, determined to preach the new catechism within an unlimited space but with human resources. One example of undoubtable significance and unquestionable quality was the series entitled The Life of Saint Ignacio de Loyola, sent by Valdés Leal to the Church of Saint Peter in Lima (1665–1669), or the series retelling the life of Saint Teresa by José Espinosa de los Monteros, in the Carmelite Convent in Cusco. These quickly became the examples to follow, allowing cloisters, common spaces and convent cells to be covered in murals with a common reference point, easing the load of hard labour in places that would otherwise seem lost, a million miles from where the nuns and monks had been born or trained. Bearing this in mind, the murals to be found in the Convents of Saint Catherine and Our lady of Mercy in Cusco are of special significance, the paintings in the latter case being the work of Padre Salamanca. These aesthetic and technical styles continued until the end of the Viceroyalty, with contributions of the highest quality by Tadeo Escalante at the beginning of the 19th Century in the church at Huaro (taking the so-called four last things as its subject matter) or the Windmill of the Incas in Acomayo, depicting local genealogy.
Aesthetic, technical and thematic diversity all invite us to follow the ways of art in the Peru of the Viceroys, endowed with indisputable originality and syncretic creativity where the synthesis of the indigenous and the foreign led to a new entity, a new experience which is, in essence, the epitome of Latin American cultural expression.
the creativity of the peruvian Juan M. Ossio A.
The creativity of the contemporary Peruvian finds its best expression in the country’s unique composition as a mosaic of cultures that are gradually laying the foundations for a better communication among themselves. This plurality proves the extraordinary capability that Man developed in this environment not only to respond to a hostile and varied geography, but also to confront distinct attempts at domination and limits placed upon freedom.
Neither the subjugation of the Andean region to the domination of the great pre- Hispanic States, nor suffering the outburst of Spanish colonisation, nor feeling the impact of a republican homogenising centralism, nor even the appearance of subversive, fundamentalist, groups have subdued the identity and the sense of autonomy that in the past permitted the development of great cultures and that presently help face the new challenges of the modern world and of globalisation.
The sense of plurality, a fundamental ingredient for creative capacity, is therefore, intrinsic to the Peruvian people. Homogeneity, on the contrary, is disdained. In Sarhua, an Ayacuchan peasant community in the province of Víctor Fajardo, a myth explains the origins of two neighbourhoods:
Before, when there was no Ayllus and all were equal, the peoples went to Jajamarca to bring the bell María Angola and poles of loquat for the construction of the church, as all were equals there was no spirit for work and so they thought—Let us put ourselves in opposition-you are going to be Qullana and we Sawqa—and the Governor divided them. The Qullana brought the bell and this is why they constructed the tower on their side (the left side of the church). (Palomino, 1984, 60).
According to this myth, diversity is the source of dynamism in that it generates a sense of competitiveness that is fundamental to accelerate work.
This is what underlies, to a great extent, the dualism that led to the partition in halves of Cusco and many other cities and Andean towns. For example, the Tahuantinsuyo capital is divided into “hanan” (high) and “hurin” (low), or “allauca” (right) and “ichoqa” (left), etc. In consequence this myth not only explains the origin of social groups in Sarhua but also highlights the importance conceded by the Andean worldview to competition as expressed in a dualist system. The famous French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss suggests that this dualist system is closely linked to the value of reciprocity.
The sense of competition tied to communal labour gives these tasks a ludic sense, transforming them into festive events. Because it is associated intimately with the value of reciprocity, one of the main ingredients of the Andean “ethos”, its projection is not limited solely to the field of communal chores, but rather permeates the whole of social life.
A simple look at the process of socialisation of individuals shows us that from a very early age their culture prepares them through the use of language, to ensure that their creativity is stimulated. Evidence of this are the competitions among youths of the opposite sex that revolve around the telling of riddles or “huatuchis”, as they are called in Quechua. A consequence of this practice, is that in the Andes there exists an extensive repertory of these accounts, many of which contain an erotic content that is consonant with the competitive contexts that have the additional peculiarity of being closely associated with the initiation of the sexual life of these youths.
Owing to the fact that the dualism that impregnates the social life of the Andean peoples claims as its principal paradigm the conjunction of the sexes, considered the greatest expression of the recreation of life and the ordering of the cosmos, it is not surprising that these competitions are correlated with the awakening of adolescent sexuality. This explains why artistic expressions as significant as music, dance and the very notion of beauty find in complementary opposition their main source. We find an example of this in the simultaneous usage of the “pincullo” or “quenas”—wind instruments used exclusively by men—that in many instances are played simultaneously with the “tinyas”— drums that form a part of the women’s musical repertory.
But perhaps the most clearly visible expression of the relation of music with the conjunction of complementary opposites is in the famous dance of the scissors, which is deeply rooted in the traditions of the Huancavelica, Ayacucho and Apurímac districts. In these festivities where the unity of Andean social sets is recreated, a pair of metal bars that the dancers clink together are intended to represent the two sexes. These examples, and others that spring from distinct melodic genres, contest to the fact that Andean music finds its principal source of inspiration in the union of complementary opposites.
Related to these characteristics of music, and given that it is in itself a symbolic language saturated of dualism, its execution and its transformation into dance—as well as in the riddles and public labour—are instilled with that competitive sense that represents the driving force of social life. Once again, perhaps the most representative
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