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San Blas is today a downtown neighborhood in
the city known as the " Artists' District", with narrow and
writhing streets, most of them steep. In Incan times it was one
of the most important districts of Qosqo and its name was "T'oqo-kachi"
(T'oqo = hollow; kachi = salt). Like the other districts it was
inhabited by the Quechua nobility. It seems that the church was
erected over an Incan Sanctuary devoted to cult of the "Illapa"
god (Thunder, Lightning and Thunderbolt). It was possibly opened
for the first time in 1544 by the city's second Bishop Juan
Solano. Although some other versions say that it was after 1559
as consequence of viceroy Andres Hurtado de Mendoza's order by
which "Indians" had to built churches for their indoctrination
in the districts where they lived. Its structure was simple with
a rectangular floor plan and mud brick walls, but after the
earthquakes in 1650 and 1950 it was partially reinforced with
stone walls. It has just one nave and two gates before which
there are big plazas; and a stone bell tower constructed after
the 1950 earthquake instead of the original made with mud bricks.
Inside the church is one of the greatest jewels of colonial art
in the continent: the Pulpit of Saint Blaise; which is a
filigree made in cedar wood by expert hands managing a gouge. It
is not known with certainty who was the artist or artists that
made it, how long the work lasted, neither any other details
about it. However, the pulpit is over there as a mute witness of
a great Catholic devotion and devoted work. There are enough
proofs to assert that it was made carved with funds given by art
protector Bishop Manuel Mollinedo y Angulo; therefore, it was by
the end of the XVII century. There are serious discrepancies
about the identity of the performing artist.
Most authors suggest that it was made by the most famous
Quechua woodcarver: Juan Tomas Tuyro Tupaq, that was
contemporary and protected of Mollinedo y Angulo, who entrusted
him the manufacture of several works. It also could have been
work of some other artists contemporary with Mollinedo such as
Martin de Torres, Diego Martinez de Oviedo who made the
monumental High Altar of the Compaņia de Jesus Church, or the
Franciscan Luis Montes that made the San Francisco Church's
choir. Oral tradition has its version gathered by Angel Carreņo
who in his "Cusquenian Traditions" manuscript had stated in
writing the name Esteban Orcasitas as the pulpit's author; but,
for the 1st. edition of his book the name was changed by that of
Juan Tomas Tuyrutupa. Tuyrutupa was Quechua and Cusquenian, but
according to that traditional version he was a leper woodcarver
from Huamanga (Ayacucho). The story tells that once he had in
his dreams a revelation of the "Holy Virgin of the Good
Happening" who told him that if he wanted to get healed from his
leprosy he had to look for her in the small plaza of Arrayanpata
in Qosqo City. After a long journey and many mishaps, one day he
found her painted on a wall after that the roofing of the "Lirpuy-Phaqcha"
chapel fell in. Falling on his knees and weeping he invoked her,
as the Virgin's rosary became rose petals with which he rubbed
hard his whole body remaining thus completely healed. The piece
of wall containing the painting was cut and moved to the Saint
Blaise Church, then people agreed upon to build an altarpiece
and a pulpit for the Virgin. The grateful Quechua woodcarver
committed himself to make the pulpit without charging any money
for the work estimated in 1400 pesos. The work took him 4 years
of hard labor with wood from an enormous cedar tree that was cut
in the Kusipata square (present-day Regocijo). But, when
finishing his work the woodcarver failed his oath as he asked
the church's curate for 70 pesos in order to lionize a
Cusquenian half-breed woman. After fastening the Saint Paul
statue over the pulpit's sounding board, he stumbled and fell
off dying soon after. His corpse was buried under the pulpit but
some time later it was taken out and his skull placed before the
feet of the Saint Paul sculpture, where it is seen today.
As any other normal pulpit, that of Saint Blaise has a
balcony (basin), a thorax (main body), a sounding board (cupola),
and a gallery (entrance). The Basin is spherical and supported
by a bronze structure; it contains eight human busts
representing the Catholicism heretics |
