Main portal of the church of Belén, Cajamarca (Joseph Morales, 1744)
For sculptural magnificence the three church facades of Cajamarca are unique in Peru. Truly retables in stone adapted to an architectural purpose, they display inventive imagination in design and nothing short of genius in the decorative fantasy of the relief sculpture which both technically and creatively will stand the test beside the best which Spain itself or any other land has too offer.
Of the three great baroque retablo portals that exist in the city of Cajamarca, Peru, the main portal that adorns the church of Belén is probably the best both in design and craftsmanship. The church belongs to the hospital of Nuestra Señora de la Piedad, which was attended by the order of Bethlehemite Brothers originally founded in Guatemala in the seventeenth century.
According to an inscription in the pedestals of the statues in the second story, the portal was the work of Joseph Morales and was finished in 1744. It is a huge portal, three stories high, with three vertical sections divided by four rows of salomonic columns. In the central section of the first story stands the door of the church, consisting of an arch over doorjambs adorned with the diamond pattern so characteristic of cajamarcan architecture. The archivolt is exquisitely carved with vines, while in the spandrels over the door, two angels holding vegetal crowns flank the crowns of the three Magi, the symbol of the Bethlehemite Order. The lateral sections of the first story have two niches on each side, between the lavishly carved salomonic columns.
The entablature that separates the first and second stories of the portal has a frieze carved with the same vines that adorn the archivolt of the door, with a small star - the star of Bethlehem - in the center of it. Over the entablature, corresponding to the base of the second story, is placed a shell,a feature absent in the other two retablo portals in Cajamarca, but otherwise very common in domestic architecture. The central section of the second story contains a very large choir window, quatrefoil in shape, the most original element in the portal. Four small angels in the corners of the window complete this very original composition. The lateral sections of this story contain a single niche on each side, surrounded by a richly carved pattern of vines springing from the mouth of a “green man”, a usual decorative motif in mannerist architecture,
The third story is considerably smaller in height than the other two, and consists of three arches containing niches adorned with shells, the central one being larger than the others. The entire surface is exquisitely carved with a vegetal pattern that covers every space available. A broken undulating cornice with volutes in the center completes the composition.
The overall composition of the portal is flat and static, lacking the dynamism that is characteristic of baroque portals in other peruvian cities. It is nonetheless baroque, because of its projection in the urban setting by externalizing the cult through a retablo portal, and also because of the architectural elements present in its composition, such as the salomonic columns covered with vines, the flat vine patterns and the frontal shell, among others.
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