The author of this obituary notice explains that Manuel Piqueras Cotolí was born in Córdoba, Spain, where he learned to appreciate the “architectural grandeur” of that city-museum. Manuel Solari Swayne lists the prizes the artist began accumulating as a young man, and mentions his move to Madrid, where he was influenced by the painting of Ribera and Zurbarán. He later went to Rome, and his earliest works were marked by the classicism of Cellini, the Italian sculptor. Solari Swayne writes that when Piqueras Cotolí arrived in Peru he was “a foreigner, an artist who approached an unfamiliar environment and expressed it better than anyone.” Absorbing Ricardo Palma’s writing and Teófilo Castillo’s painting, the newcomer synthesized their material in his bronze sculptures. In his architectural work, he combined the Spanish baroque style with the simple economy of the Inca period to create a mestizo style that was known as “neo-Peruvian.”    

Manuel Solari Swayne discusses Piqueras Cotolí’s work on the anniversary of his death.

Manuel Piqueras Cotolí was a Spanish architect, sculptor, and urban developer who settled in Peru in 1919. In Madrid he had been a member of the renowned Miguel Blay’s sculpture studio, and had worked at the Codina foundry and 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’s program during the José Pardo administration (1915–19), whose goal was to introduce the nineteenth-century European academic tradition to Peru. The ENBA’s first director, Daniel Hernández, permitted the development of nationalist movements (during Augusto Leguía’s presidency, 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-Colombian periods [see in the ICAA digital archive by Carlos Solari “Habla Piqueras Cotolí” (doc. no. 1141340)]. Though 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’s facade (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; though 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” (1900–85). Piqueras Cotolí 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 by G. Salinas Cossío “Manuel Piqueras Cotolí” (doc. no. 1136631)].