Nacimiento de San Francisco, Basilio Santa Cruz

Basilio Pacheco de Santa Cruz Pumacallao (1635–1710)
''Artnet''. (retrieved 21 June 2009) or Basilio de Santa Cruz Puma Callao was a Peruvian painter of Quechua (Inca) and

Ladino Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to: * The register of Judaeo-Spanish used in the translation of religious texts, such as the Ferrara Bible *Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especi ...

origin from

Cusco, Peru Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; i ...

. He was part of the

Cuzco School The Cusco School (''Escuela cuzqueña'') or Cuzco School, was a Roman Catholic artistic tradition based in Cusco, Peru (the former capital of the Inca Empire) during the Colonial period, in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. It was not limited to ...

, a colonial movement of indigenous painters educated in the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

religious painting tradition of Spain.

Background

Basilio Santa Cruz is also known by his Quechua name, Pumaqallo or Pumacallo, and with

Diego Quispe Tito Diego Quispe Tito (1611–1681) was a Quechua painter from Peru. He is considered the leader of the Cuzco School of painting. Background The son of a noble Inca family, Quispe Tito was born in Cuzco, and worked throughout his life in the distric ...

, is regarded as one of the most famous painters in the Cusco School tradition.Dean, Carolyn
''Inka bodies and the body of Christ: Corpus Christi in Colonial Cuzco, Peru.''
Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1999: 77-78. (retrieved through Google Books, 22 June 2009) . He lived during the colonial era of the 17th century in the Viceroyalty of Peru. His primary patron was Bishop Manuel de Mollinedo. His work combined the parallel influences of Peru and Spain and is characterized by its dynamic composition, lavish decoration, and large scale. Initially art historians believed Basilio Santa Cruz to be a Spanish friar, but historian Jorge Cornejo Bouroncle discovered contracts commissioning paintings from the artist, revealed that he was Basilio de Santa Cruz Pumacallao, with a distinctly Quechua surname, confirming his identity as an Indian.

Style

His style is highly distinct from that of contemporary artist Diego Quispe Tito, because it is not based specifically on engravings imported from Europe but also paintings by Spanish artists. This influence can be attributed to the artworks that the Bishop Mollinedo brought back from Madrid. His studio created an extensive series of paintings depicted the life of St. Francis.

Collections

Santa Cruz's artwork can be seen at the

Cathedral of Cusco , image = Cathédrale de Cusco Décembre 2007e.jpg , image_size = 250px , alt = , caption = Main facade of the Cusco Cathedral. , location = Cusco, Peru , geo ...

. In its basilica are two enormous paintings by him, featuring

Saint Christopher Saint Christopher ( el, Ἅγιος Χριστόφορος, ''Ágios Christóphoros'') is veneration, venerated by several Christianity, Christian denominations as a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman Empire, Roman emperor Deciu ...

's Apotheosis and Saint Isidore, respectively. Past the transept hang two more of Santa Cruz's large canvases, the "Chasuble Imposition to

Saint Ildephonsus Ildefonsus or Ildephonsus (rarely ''Ildephoses'' or ''Ildefonse''; Spanish: San Ildefonso; c. 8 December 607 – 23 January 667) was a scholar and theologian who served as the metropolitan Bishop of Toledo for the last decade of his life. His Go ...

" and "The Ecstasy of

Saint Philip Neri Philip Romolo Neri ( ; it, italics=no, Filippo Romolo Neri, ; 22 July 151526 May 1595), known as the "Second Apostle of Rome", after Saint Peter, was an Italian priest noted for founding a society of secular clergy called the Congregation of th ...

." A final piece of his work hangs in the Chapel of

Saint Joseph Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers of ...

. It is entitled, "Royal Saint Mary of Almudena", portraying a Virgin widely revered in Spain. The cathedral also owns his monumental oil paintings, ''Charles II and the Queen of Spain Adoring the Virgin of Almudena'' and ''Virgin of Bethlehem with Bishop Mollinedo''. His work also still stands in Convento de San Francisco del Cusco (Church and Convent of San Francisco, Cuzco) and includes "Series of the life of

Saint Francis St. Francis or Saint Francis may refer to: Roman Catholic saints *Francis of Assisi (1181–1226), Italian founder of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans) *Francis of Paola (1416–1507), Italian (Calabrian) founder of the Order of the Minims * ...

", in which only the last picture is signed by the artist. It is dated 1667. The Iglesia de la Merced has Santa Cruz's "Martyrdom of Saint Laurence", a painting with angels in the style of Spanish painter

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Bartolomé Esteban Murillo ( , ; late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporar ...

. Basilio Santa Cruz de Pumacallao created iconographies of arcabuceros, that is, angels with muzzle-loaded firearms, so characteristic of the

and so different from the angels imagined in Europe at the same time. ''Corpus Christi Procession in Cuzco'', a late 17th-century oil on canvas painting in the collection of the Museo Arzobispol del Arte Religioso, has been attributed to him.Stratton-Pruitt 21

Notes

References

*Stratton-Pruitt, Suzanne, ed. ''The Virgin, Saints, and Angels: South American Paintings 1600—1825 from the Thomas Collection''. Milan, Italy: Skira, 2006. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Cruz de Pumacallao, Basilio 1635 births 1710 deaths Peruvian people of Quechua descent Latin American artists of indigenous descent Peruvian Mannerist painters Cusco School 17th-century indigenous painters of the Americas 17th-century Peruvian people 18th-century Peruvian people Catholic painters