Basilio Pacheco de Santa Cruz Pumacallao (1635–1710)
''Artnet''. (retrieved 21 June 2009) or Basilio de Santa Cruz Puma Callao was a

Peruvian Peruvians (''/peruanas'') are the citizens of Peru. What is now Peru has been inhabited for several millennia by cultures such as the Caral before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Peruvian population decreased from an estimated 5–9 ...

painter of

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

(Inca) and

Ladino Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to: * Judeo-Spanish language (ISO 639–3 lad), spoken by Sephardic Jews *Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especially in Guatemala * Black ladinos, a ...

origin from

Cusco, Peru Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous Cusco Province, province and Cusco Region, department. The city was the cap ...

. 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 Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

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.Bethell, Leslie. ''The Cambridge History of Latin America'', Cambridge University Press (1995), p.742. . Despite the prev ...

, is regarded as one of the most famous painters in the

Cusco 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 ...

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 The Viceroyalty of Peru (), officially known as the Kingdom of Peru (), was a Monarchy of Spain, Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in ...

. His primary patron was Bishop Manuel de Mollinedo. His work combined the parallel influences of

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and is characterized by its dynamic composition, lavish decoration, and large scale. Initially art historians believed Basilio Santa Cruz to be a Spanish

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendi ...

, 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 Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. 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. In its

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

are two enormous paintings by him, featuring

Saint Christopher Saint Christopher (, , ; ) is venerated by several Christian denominations. According to these traditions, he was a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman Empire, Roman emperor Decius (), or alternatively under the emperor Maximin ...

's Apotheosis and Saint Isidore, respectively. Past the

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

hang two more of Santa Cruz's large canvases, the "

Chasuble The chasuble () is the outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist in Western-tradition Christian churches that use full vestments, primarily in Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. In the Eastern ...

Imposition to

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

" and "The Ecstasy of

Saint Philip Neri Saint Philip Neri , born Filippo Romolo Neri, (22 July 151526 May 1595) was an Italian Catholic priest who founded the Congregation of the Oratory, a society of secular clergy dedicated to pastoral care and charitable work. He is sometimes ref ...

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

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

. 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 Saint Lawrence or Laurence (; 31 December 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman emperor Valerian ordered in 258. ...

", 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 contempor ...

. 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 Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or copper for several centuries. ...

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 artists Catholic painters