작품 상세

Viceregal School. Cuzco. 18th century. 'The Exaltation of the Eucharist' Oil on canvas. 150,5 x 106 cm. An important pictorial piece, with the characteristic naïve strokes of Cuzco painting, very comparable to the work currently exhibited in Room 6 of the Pedro de Osma Museum in Lima. In that painting, Saint Rose of Lima appears with a glowing face (here replaced by a column or pillar) supporting the Monstrance above her, defending with her own life the Eucharist and the real presence of Jesus within it. This is a deeply symbolic or allegorical scene, with two clearly differentiated planes: Heaven and Glory, on the one hand, breaking forth illuminated in a sea of clouds with the Holy Trinity almost embracing the Monstrance that merges into its space; and Earth, on the other, where kings, powers, and dominions, Christians and infidels, bow in adoration and reverence before it. With a period frame richly carved with palmettes and leaves (ungilded), we contemplate, therefore, the Exaltation and Defense of the Eucharist, a very recurring theme of the 17th and 18th centuries. In the museum painting mentioned, Saint Rose appears, the first Lima-born saint canonized on the American continent during the reign of Charles II (who appears in both paintings on the left side wielding a sword), turned into an emblem of Catholic fervor and American spiritual resistance. The saint appears as the orthodox, Tridentine defender of the Eucharist, which in Spain was contested by Protestants, illuminists, Moors, and Jews. In both works we see, on the left, the young king of Spain Charles II (1661–1700), sword in hand, with his court, facing Moors, Jews, and infidels on the right, who attempt to bring down the Monstrance. There are other viceregal works, earlier than these, such as the Corpus Christi series painted at the end of the seventeenth century for the church of Santa Ana, which constitute the most complete pictorial and iconographic testimony of the Baroque festival in viceregal Peru. In them appear several Inca nobles or curacas with their headdresses and royal garments, who uncovered their heads as a sign of respect for the Eucharist and loyalty to the House of Austria. For the Spanish House of Austria, in fact, the defense of the Eucharist had profound political overtones. The Sacred Host “embodied the providential meaning of their monarchy,” as Juan de Solórzano Pereira (1575–1655), judge of the Royal Audiencia of Lima and prosecutor of the Council of the Indies, reminded. This providential sense is reflected in our work. Symbolically, we can see at the feet of the central column on which the Monstrance rests, a globe crowned with scepter and royal crown, emerging at the base of the trunk and foundation that gives life and meaning (Monstrance-Providence) to this monarchy. Legend tells that since its founder, Count Rudolf of Austria (1218–1291), who assisted a priest walking with a monstrance in his hands, seating him on his horse and carrying him as though he were a servant, that cleric prophesied that “the House of Austria, for its reverence toward the Eucharist, would rule the entire world.” A work created for a town hall, a wealthy landowner, or even a religious space, in which the orthodox sense of the doctrine brought by the Spaniards with their kings is typified, the almost juridical ordering of that Protectorate that flowed over those who “followed and professed the true doctrine.” In the figures, the detail and richness of the garments, brocades, and embroidery of all the characters stand out, as well as the presence, in the lower left corner, of a timid Hispanic lion behind the King, at his feet, as appears in other representations, such as the one attributed to Sebastián de Herrera Barnuevo, symbolizing the strength of the Spanish monarchy, the power, fortitude, and bravery of the king in the face of his enemies. Colonial Spanish America.