Sketch for The Señor de los Milagros procession

The Peruvian painter, Camilo Blas –pseudonym of Alfonso Sánchez Urteaga– was one of the most famous members of the Indigenist movement which promoted the representation of national subjects and vindicated rural artistic traditions. Encouraged by the National Painting Prize that he received at the beginning of 1947, Blas dedicated the following months to the execution of one of his most inspirational pictorial compositions: The Señor de los Milagros procession. As the present final study in pastel reflects, the work incorporates the topic of a “picture within a picture”, as it represents the most venerated religious icon of the Peruvian capital. But, above all, the artist appears to have suggested by this means the exaltation of an ancient Lima devotion, traditionally invoked against seismic movements, just seven years after the great earthquake of 1940 which had seriously affected Lima and Callao. The canvas marks the culmination of the Creole thematic that Blas had been exploring since the previous decade, and it also records the height of his approximation to the style and conventions of mural painting. (LEW)