Page 291 - Perú indígena y virreinal

sentimental style. During these years Espinosa worked on the splendid series on the life of Santa Catalina of Siena (1669) for the monastery of the same name, using as his starting point engravings by J. Swelinck. To the warmth of his very particular colour scheme Espinosa added the Flemish touch of a border of flowers around each scene, a motif which would be enthusiastically adopted by regional painting.
THE “MOLLINEDO ERA”
Although artistic production in Cusco had consolidated it would receive an even greater impetus during the ecclesiastical administration of bishop Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo (1673–699). A Madrid cleric of vast humanist learning, Mollinedo took with him a valuable collection which included work by El Greco, Sebastián de Herrera Barnuevo, Juan Carreño and other painters of the Spanish court. Coming into contact with the effervescent artistic life of Cusco these canvases must have been a powerful stimulant, for the ‘Spanish’ painters with an eye on the new styles from the peninsula, as well as for the emerging indigenous artists of the city.
In 1688 serious conflicts arose between the two sectors. On the occasion of the Corpus Christi celebrations, the Spanish painters’ guild had presented a petition to the Cusco magistrate to be given the job of constructing the triumphal arch for the celebrations, thus excluding the indigenous artists. In the opinion of Mesa and Gisbert this apparently anecdotal story was of great consequence and would signal the beginning the most creative phase of the of the Cusco School.
Two great indigenous painters, favoured by Mollinedo, dominated the scene for the last quarter of the 17th Century: Diego Quispe Tito (1611–1681?) and Basilio de Santa Cruz Pomacallao (active 1661–1700). They were very singular artists and their styles came to overshadow the “Spanish” artists, anticipating the flowering of “mestizo” painting. Both came from second rank or poor families of the indigenous aristocracy and they seemed to have turned to painting in order to gain the social status and fortunes that their origins could not provide.
Quispe Tote used to add the name “inga” to the signatures of some of his canvases but very little is known about his training or his personal development which can only be traced by following his dated works. He may well have been a native of the parish of San Sebastian, the place which has the most original works by Quispe, who is known for his vivid colouring, his agile brushstrokes and his liking for idealised landscape, in which Flemish influenced woods and mountains are brought to life by a multitude of birds which can often be identified as those of the local fauna. By way of contrast, the Zodiac series for the cathedral of Cusco (1681) shows a fully European influence of a technical quality unsurpassed in its context. In this way Quispe Tito continued adapting to the aesthetic preferences of bishop Mollinedo and to the cathedral chapter for the rest of his life.
But the painter to whom Mollinedo gave his greatest consideration was, without doubt, Basilio de Santa Cruz Pumacallao. After a brilliant local career in which the painter was linked to the Franciscan order, he was chosen by the bishop to do the main decorative works for the cathedral, works in which the prevailing “orthodox” Cusco Baroque style reached its apex. The themes developed by Santa Cruz in the transept and the retro-choir deal with diverse allegories of the Eucharist as well as the favourite saints of the Counter-reformation such as San Ildefonso and San Felipe Neri. The compositions of the Virgen de Bélen and the Virgen de la Almudena include portraits of the bishop and the Spanish monarchs kneeling in prayer, in line with the visual politics of Mollinedo. All these works show that Santa Cruz was familiar with the style of the school of Rubens; in the billowing movement of the clothes, the luminous colour and in the triumphal tone of his compositions.
From the immediate circle of collaborators of Santa Cruz—which included personalities as outstanding as Juan Zapata Inca—we have the celebrated series of Corpus Christi originally conceived as the main decoration of the parish of Santa Ana (today in the Museo del palacio Arzobispal de Cusco and in private collections in Chile). The execution of these works demonstrate some of the iconographic innovations which grew out of the intellectual circle centred on Mollinedo. The oil paintings show the progress of the procession of the Corpus around the principal streets of Cusco at the time of its greatest urban splendour. More than anything else they offer us an idealised image of the society at
that time, consisting of group portraits, urban panoramas, religious allegories and political arguments. In this way the bishop was able to draw on the patronage of rich Indians in Cusco who appeared in portraits throughout the series as either donors or in the role of festive “incas”.
THE EXPANSION OF THE CUSCO SCHOOL
By the beginning of the 18th Century the Cusco style was extending quickly and filling the demand for art in all corners of the viceroyalty. In fact Cusco became the centre of a growing market for the export of religious oil paintings to Alto Peru, Chile and northern Argentina as well as Lima and the rest of the Andes region. If the constant industry of the workshops led to a far greater production it also made possible the search for formal and even iconographical invention. During this time the use of gold over paint—called “estofado” or “brocateado” in the working documents—became general practice and was used to sumptuously enhance the halos or the clothes of the saints. These kind of outmoded practices added to the disdain that native artists had for naturalistic representation which was abandoned in favour of stereotyped figures and arbitrary or naive use of perspective.
Some favoured genres were reaching a high level of refinement. There was a strong resurgence of “images of piety”: the Virgin or Saint Joseph with the Christ Child, the Holy Family or patron saints delicately painted over dark backgrounds which contrasted with the flowered borders and shining embossed work in some of the details. Another very widespread form was the pictorial representation of images of busts in the centre of their altarpieces or on their processional platforms, dressed up with all the clothes and jewellery for festive occasions.
Leaving to one side the iconoclastic fury of the campaigns to stamp out idolatry, the 18th Century was more tolerant of the various manifestations of religion on the part of the indigenous artists. In this way iconographic motifs as peculiar as archangels with arquebuses which were arrayed as luxuriously as the contemporary court, were widely disseminated. The elegant attitude of these divine messengers can be found to correspond with explanations about the use of firearms in certain Flemish treatises on the subject. In the mind of the indigenous viewer such arms were associated with Illapa the ancient god of thunder who had intervened on the Spanish side in the drama at Cajamarca.
For their part the members of the native nobility—already present in the series of the Corpus—gave rise to an “Inca Renaissance” which was manifested in theatre, the decorative arts and in painting. There were many portraits painted of Indians leaders (curacas) or ñustas in Inca dress and also genealogical series of Incas and their consorts (coyas) which emphasised the insignia of Inca power as well as the shields which were given to the indigenous peoples who were loyal to the Spanish crown. This outburst of the indigenous population aroused different reactions among the groups of Creoles and mestizos, the Church and even the administrative mechanism of the viceroyalty, sparking off what Stastny has described as an “iconographic war”. There was every indication that the fight for symbolic power in the Andes was an expression of a deeply divided society which was about to explode into revolution.
WORKSHOPS AND MASTERS
Even though the best work of this kind was by anonymous artists the existence of well-organised contemporary workshops under the auspices of indigenous masters is well documented. Their names became famous as the 18th Century went on due to the contracts they signed with businessmen and drivers to deliver dozens of oil paintings to other cities. Soon the triumph of Cusco painting would even be noted in the capital of the viceroyalty. As early as 1713 the French traveller Amadée Frezier commented with astonishment on how most of the houses in Lima were furnished with “a high quantity of bad paintings, done by the Indians of Cusco”.
Among the painters who converted themselves into businessmen it is worth mentioning Basilio Pacheco (active 1738–1752) author of a series on the life of Saint Augustine for the Augustinian cloister in Lima and Mauricio García who in the 1750’s managed an enormous workshop which served the markets of Alto Peru and the north of
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