The author of this article notes that Santa Rosa [Saint Rosa] has been glorified with altars, chapels, and temples in various parts of the world; he therefore believes that a basilica should be built in her honor in Lima, her home city. But first, he thinks several problems would have to be resolved, the most important of which would be the selection of an artist. The Spanish sculptor Manuel Piqueras Cotolí had lived in Peru for many years; after he died, an elementary draft for the construction of a basilica was found among his papers and sketches. His design included a vision of Peru that posited a fusion of the country’s two main races, suggesting a sense of nationality in what the author calls one of the first hints of a “truly Peruvian architecture.” This proposal referenced a couple of important examples: the façade of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes and the famous Peruvian Pavilion at the Exposición de Sevilla (1929). In both cases an (updated) Spanish baroque style was combined with indigenous motifs to express what is also known as “neo-Peruvian architecture.” The article provides descriptions of its structural aspects, and other details such as the hall that houses the mock-ups, photographs, plans, and original elements left by Piqueras, contributed by the local architect Héctor Velarde.

This is the transcript of the talk given by the intellectual Alfredo Álvarez Calderón, on Radio Internacional, about the Basílica de Santa Rosa de Lima project, as sketched by the Spanish sculptor Manuel Piqueras Cotolí before he died. Manuel Piqueras Cotolí was a Spanish architect, sculptor, and urban developer, who had lived in Peru since 1919. In Madrid, he was a member of the renowned Miguel Blay sculpture studio, and worked at the Codina foundry and at the Algueis construction company. He later studied at the Academia de España in Rome. When he arrived in Peru he took charge of the sculpture department at the recently created Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes (ENBA). Founded in 1919, ENBA was originally part of the Civilista party program during the José Pardo administration (1915–19), whose goal was to introduce the nineteenth-century European academic tradition to Peru. The first director of the ENBA, Daniel Hernández, permitted the development of nationalist movements (during the presidency of Augusto Leguía, 1919–30) that eventually influenced the direction the school would take, encouraged mainly by the painter José Sabogal and by the above-mentioned Piqueras Cotolí, who created what came to be known as the “neo-Peruvian style” that consisted of a synthesis of elements appropriated from the Viceroyalty and Pre-Columbian periods. [See the following in the ICAA digital archive, “Habla Piquera Cotolí” (doc. no. 1141340)] Although at first those elements appeared as structural forms and the pre-Hispanic repertoire was used for decorative purposes, in time the fusion became more complex as the style absorbed contemporary European modernist ideas. Piqueras Cotolí’s first major project was the ENBA façade (Lima, 1924), and in that same year, he designed the reception hall at the government palace in Lima for the centennial celebrations held in honor of the Battle of Ayacucho. In 1929, he created what is considered his masterpiece, the Peruvian Pavilion at the Exposición Iberoamericana de Sevilla [see the following essay, also by Solari, writing under the pseudonym “Don Quijote”: “Notas de arte: para la exposición de Sevilla” (doc. no. 1140871)], whose symbolic center was the grand staircase. On his return, following the overthrow of the Leguía regime (1930), he was dismissed from ENBA and became a consultant at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios (Lima). The finest works he produced during his final period were his marble sculpture of Hipólito Unanue (Parque Universitario, Lima, 1931); the unfinished tribute to the writer Ricardo Palma; and the sketch for the Basílica de Santa Rosa project. The inspiration for the latter monument, which was both modernist and Pre-Columbian, sparked a heated debate about the appropriateness and relevance of Indigenism and the neo-Peruvian style; although this style had no direct followers, it was similar to the visual art of those who, other than José Sabogal’s group, were also interested in the idea of a national Peruvian art, such as: Elena Izcue (1889–1970), Jorge Vinatea Reinoso (1900–1931), and Alejandro González Trujillo “Apu-Rimak” (1900–1985). Piqueras influenced the Peruvian architects Héctor Velarde and Emilio Harth-Terré, and applied to his work the theories of the Argentineans Martín Noel (1888–1963) and Ángel Guido (1896–1960), two architects who also explored the mestizo-Viceroyal style. [As complementary reading on this artist, see the following articles in the ICAA digital archive: “Manuel Piqueras Cotolí,” by G. Salinas Cossío (doc. no. 1136631); and “Manuel Piqueras Cotolí,” by Manuel Solari Swayne” (doc. no. 1141324)].