recorrido-descalzos museum

7/29/2019 Recorrido-Descalzos Museum

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English speech: Los Descalzos Museum

Good morning/afternoon, the Descalzos Foundation welcomes you to the Descalzos

Museum.

My name is.and I will be your guide four a tour of about 35 minutes.

Some recommendations before starting the tour: it is not allowed to make any type of

recordings inside of the museum or to take pictures of the paintings. You can only take

pictures of open and closed areas, but without flash.

This monastery was founded on May 10th 1595, 60 years after the Spanish funded the

city of Lima, in 1535. In 1972, it was declared National Historic Monument, and

years later, because of the valuable and numerous artistic works which it houses

inside, it became a Museum of Colonial Religious Art in 1981. From this date until

now it is open to the public. Because of its location in Limas Historic Centre, the

UNESCO recognizes it as a World Heritage Site since 1991.

This is the first cloister named the Porters Cloister, where the visitors and guest

were received, as well as the monks relatives.

Here we can see a canvas which depicts one of the first friars of this monastery, Friar

Andres Corzo, born in Corsica (Italy). This important character was in charge of the

construction: 12 monastic cells for the first 8 friars.

This is the Saint Francis Solanus Room, in honor to the first Guardian or Superior in

this monastery (born in 1549 1610). We can see canvases about his arriving and

death. He used to play a rebec (and old musical instrument, ancestor of the

violin) to call the faithful. Also, we can see paintings which represent scenes from the

Way of the Cross (Via Crucis), they are traditionally 14, but there is one more, the

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which stages the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We can see as well apainting which depicts the founder of the Grey Friars Order, Francis of Assisi

(born in 1182-1226).

This small retable is in honour of the Virgin of Candelaria, known as The Black

Madonna. The name is Candelaria, which comes from Candle, which she holds in her

right hand as a representation of her Purification. This Virgin is venerated in Puno,

where there is a great celebration and parades during February.

(While passing the corridor)

This monastery has 7 cloisters, there are only 4 cloisters open to the public, and the

other 3are private areas, where Franciscan fathers currently live.

This is the second cloister, it is the oldest one, which dates back fromXVII century, in

honour to the founder of the Franciscan Order, Francis of Assisi; we see a sculpture

of him in the center. His real name was Bernardo di Bernardone. Around here were

built the first cells at the beginning ofXVII century.

This monastery was designed as a house of retreat, where the monastic life of its

residents was characterized by austerity and penance. It is located at the hillside of


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Saint Christopher Hill; because of that, throughout the tour, we are going to notice

different levels due to the geography of the land.

This monastic cell belonged to all the Guardian Fathers of these more than 400 years of

the monasterys history. The office was located in the first area, and the second one

was the bedroom itself. All the paintings and canvases among other things were

donations from benefactors of the Order, among them were painters, sculptors,politicians, lay people, etc. For example these paintings belong to the Cuzco School

and another one ofEuropean influence, which depicts the Immaculate Conception,

from the 18th and 17th centuries. In the Viceroyalty, a way of indoctrinating to the

vast Indian population was through these paintings of Virgins, Saints and Jesus, to turn

them into the Catholicism.

The next monastic cells have been used as an accommodation to receive the

ecclesiastical guests: we see some paintings of these distinguished visitors,

highlighting the Bishop of Loja, Ecuador, the Spanish Father Jose Ma. Masia, who

is buried in this monastery. We see a picture of him in his funeral in 1902 and the

religious clothing he used to wear.

We are in the Pilates balcony, referring to the historical fact we know in the Bible,

when Jesus faces Pilate, this is an example of how the monks took advantage of the

land making this kind of stairways. Around here we see paintings that belong to the

Quito School from XIX century, depicting the Kings of Judah. Doors and windows

in here have the same structures as the cells we met downstairs; they are filled

because behind them they have built a Clinic thats administrated by the Order.

This cell was adapted to put the Printer, unfortunately we dont have the printing

press, but we can see around the shelves the old types or molds, used with the

engraving technique.

They used to print publications about their missions in the Rainforest and HighMountains, about teaching Indian people to read, to build huts among other things;

they also learned the native languages and wrote about their suffering real hardship

during their missions.

This is the third cloister, The Infirmary Cloister. These were cells assigned to the sick

friars, as they used to travel long distances to preach, they got sick because in most of

the cases they did it by foot, they didnt eat properly, were attacked by wild tribes and

even bitten by snakes. That is why they had a Pharmacyas it was used in the late XIX

c. We can see in here a display of utensils such as scales, mortar, tools, bottles, recipe

notebook and old containers. They made their own medicine with the herbs they

collected in the missions and some other chemicals; this process was done in the

laboratory located at the back of the Pharmacy.

This next cell was assigned to a patient. The first room was for a sick monk; he had at

his disposal a wooden cowhide bed, an old tub and a wooden toilet. At the second level

we see another bed, assigned to other friar, he was a kind of nurse in charge of taking

care of the friar in the lower level. It highlights the sculpture of the Patron of Lay

Brother: Saint Didacus of Alcala. He succeeded in working recovery and healing

miracles.


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At the end we can see a door which had an important purpose, behind it is Our Lady

of Mount Carmel Chapel, because of their health condition they couldnt go to mass

in the chapel. From here they could hear mass when that door was open.

In here we can see two very interesting large paintings, the one in front of us is about

the Martyrdom of the Franciscans in Japan, painted by Juan Sanchez de la

Torre. We see those martyrs who gave their lives to spread the Christian faith, manyof them have been burnt at the stake, others beheaded, even the neophytes suffered

that horrible death. The next painting is called Adoration of the Magi, which tells

about the visit of the Kings to the baby Jesus to bring presents and worship him. This

tradition is celebrated everyJanuary 6th.

The front of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Chapelis in baroque style, it was built in

1733 at the request of Friar Luis de Santa Maria. To the front, we can see a

beautiful woodcarving altarpiece gilded with gold leaf, where the image of the Virgin is

venerated. Also we see an altar inlaid with mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell and ivory set

piece by piece, as a puzzle. The ceiling is made up of 11 joists or beams. The 5

windows consisted in a kind ofalabaster (Huamanga stone). All around this chapel

we see paintings of great artistic value. Up there we see the Choir Stall. Formerly it

was the Chapter House where the monks received their Theology and Philosophy

classes. Nowadays, in this chapel, we still celebrate Christening, Communion, and

Weddings prior request; that is the reason we have these modern benches.

This is the Bitti Room in honour to the Italian artist Bernardo Bitti, Jesuit brother who

came to Peru in 1575 with the aim of working on paintings of churches and convents in

most of the South Andean territory. We see also valuable works of various artists

highlighting the oil made by Bitti called The Virgin of the Rose (XVII century),

Italian School; Saint Joseph and the Boy Jesus (XVII century), by Esteban

Murillo, Seville School and The Young Virgin of Italian influence, this Virgin

gives an impression she is following us with her eyes all around this room while wemove.

This is the Our Lady of the Angels Room, because of the painting we see in front of

us made by the Italian artist Angelino Medoro in 1600. It has two scenes on it, on

the lower side of the painting is the Assumption and on the top the Coronation. Around

this room we see other paintings belonging to the Cuzco Schooldedicated to the

Virgin, at different stages of her life. The official name that this monastery was founded

with was House of Retreat Our Lady of the Angels, it is known more for us as Los

Descalzos, which means The Barefooted Friars, due to the monks custom of

wearing very thin sandals, giving the impression they werent wearing anything on

their feet.

This is the last cloister to visit, The Ayacucho Cloisterbecause of the colours used on

the murals, typical of the Region of Ayacucho Folk handcrafts. This work was made by

a nun called Maria de La Marwith her assistant during 4 years; it was finished in

1985. It is known also known by the name ofThe Cloister of the Way of the Cross

because around it we can see the 14 Stations of the Via Crucis from the XVIII

century, all of them with inscription in old Spanish. In Holly Weeka Procession is

made all around this cloister and a mass is celebrated where the Christian community

is invited.


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In this corridor we can see other paintings from Lima School (XVIII century), but the

one that highlights the most is one from Quito School (XVII), which depicts the

Christ of the Agony, made by the Ecuadorian artist Miguel de Santiago. To carry

out his task he used his assistant as a model. He asked him to strip out of his clothes

and put him on a cross and started his job. Unhappy with the fact that he couldnt

portrait the tru pain of being crucified, he pierced the chest of the unfortunate model

with a spear. While the model was bleeding and dying, the artist began to paint him;that was the only way the artist could capture the agony and pain depicted in the

canvas we see in front. When he finished his task, he realized the madness he had

committed. Then he gave himself up to justice, but soon he got freed because he was a

well-known artist.

The next room is the Refectory or Dining Room. In here, all the monks used to eat

their food, while the Superior read a paragraph of the Bible and said grace from the

pulpit we see up there. The paintings around here depict the Superiors since XVI c.

until the XVIII c. We see some other characters as Saint Antonio de Padua, among

others. Also we see The Last Supper and Balthazar Supperfrom the Lima School.

Nearby stands The Kitchen, in here we see an old Lectern used to put on it the

Choral Books for their singings in Latin. All around this room we see jars of clay

having an inner coating of beeswax to preserve the chicha (fermented drink made of

corns) called PISKOS because of the name of so-called community of Indians, who

were potters par excellence. From the community and the name of the jars comes our

National Drink: the PISCO. However, another use for these jars was the one of beans

container.

We see an old fashioned stillfor the process of distillation of the grapes to obtain the

eau-de-vie or pisco in our country.

This is The Winery, the monks in this monastery had their own orchard, they used to

sow and harvest the grapes, which were put in this old fashioned machine called

grape stemmer, which separated the bunches from the fruit and fell down in this

wooden container, then brought to this other machine: an old wine press, which

pressed the grapes to obtain the juice which came out from this tube. So, with regard

to aging, they were stored in these oak barrels to obtain the wine, and later

consumption. They used the wine for the mass and sent to other monasteries around

Peru.

This big old copper potwas used to prepare a special soup to share out to the people

every August 2nd called the Porzioncola, this tradition still continues nowadays.

Porzioncola means small portion of land, also is the name of a small chapel located

within the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels, in Assisi, Italy, which Francis ofAssisi repaired and where presumably founded the Franciscan Movement on

February 24th 1208.

Behind this grill door and around there are the private areas where there is also a

graveyard, the building at the front is the Saint Francis Solanus House of Retreat

built in 1744.


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This is the last area to meet, in this wall we can see the Franciscan Prayerand the

Niche of the Bishop of Loja, whose picture we saw in the first area we visited (it was

his funeral in 1902). His body is presumably inside the wall.

I hope this journey through the past has been to your liking. Thank you very much for

your visit and have a nice staying in our country.

recorrido-descalzos museum

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