When the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines in 1521, the colonizers used art as a tool

to propagate the Catholic faith through beautiful images. With communication as

problem, the friars used images to explain the concepts behind Catholicism, and to tell
the stories of Christ’s life and passion. Images of the Holy Family and the saints were
introduced to the Filipino psyche through carved santos, the via crucis (Stations of the
Cross), engravings on estampas and estampitas, and through paintings on church
walls.

Though the ethnic art forms such as pottery, weaving and metalwork were retained, the
Spanish friars and the Chinese, the colony’s primary trading partner, were slowly
introducing newer art forms. Icons brought by the friars were used as models for
sculpture. Filipino artisans were taught the Chinese brushwork technique in painting.
Engraving was also introduced.

The concept of patronage emerged. Artisans were commissioned and paid to carve,
engrave, and paint. They replaced the arts that were once done in a communal spirit
and community setting for rituals. The church, particularly the friars, became the new
patron of the arts.

Since most art produced during the first two centuries of Spanish occupation were for
the church, the friars enforced strict supervision over their production. Until the
19th century, art was only for the church and religious use.

Early in the 19th century, with the opening of the Suez canal in 1869 and the
development of the agricultural export economy, native indios acquired economic
wealth and became what was to be called the “ilustrados,”meaning enlightened and
educated. These developments paved the way for Filipinos ilustrados to send their
children to universities in Europe. The rise of the “ilustrado” (Filipinos with money and
education) class was inevitable. The ilustrados became the new patron of the arts.
These events paved the way for the secularization of art in the 19 thcentury.

A. Painting

The Spanish friars introduced Western painting in the Philippines to artisans who
learned to copy on two-dimensional form from the religious icons that the friars brought
from Spain,. For the first centuries of Spanish colonization, painting was limited to
religious icons. Portraits of saints and of the Holy Family became a familiar sight in
churches. Other subject matters include the passion of Christ, the Via Crucis, the
crucifixion, portrayal of heaven, purgatory and hell.

Painters from the Visayas island of Bohol were noted for their skillful manipulation of the
technique. Their paintings of saints and religious scenes show figures in frontal and
static positions. For the Boholano painters, the more important persons would be
depicted bigger than the rest of the figures. Christ normally dwarfs the Roman soldiers
in these paintings. Unfortunately, they did not sign their names on their works and no
record of their names exists.
In the church in Paete, Laguna are two works by Josef Luciano Dans (1805- ca.
1870), probably one of the earliest recorded painters in Philippine art history. Langit,
Lupa at Impierno ca. 1850 (Heaven, Earth and Hell), a three-level painting which
shows the Holy Trinity, Mary the Mother of Christ, saints, the Seven Blessed
Sacraments and a macabre depiction of Hell. The second painting is
entitled Purgatorio (Purgatory) which shows the eight forms of punishment the soul
passes through for cleansing before reaching Heaven.

During the early part of the Spanish occupation, painting was exclusively for the
churches and for religious purposes. Occasionally, it was also used for
propaganda. Esteban Villanueva of Vigan, Ilocos Sur depicted the Ilocos revolt against
the basi monopoly in a 1821. The Spanish government commissioned the work. The
fourteen panels show the series of events that led to the crushing of the Ilocano basi
workers revolt by Spanish forces. It also showed the appearance of Halley’s comet in
the Philippines during that time.

Tagalog painters Jose Loden, Tomas Nazario and Miguel de los Reyes, did the first
still life paintings in the country. They were commissioned in 1786 by a Spanish botanist
to paint the flora and fauna found in the country.

The earliest known historical paintings in the Philippines was a mural at

the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) in Intramuros entitled The Conquest of the
Batanes done in 1783. Unfortunately, it was destroyed during the 1863 earthquake.

Secular subject matter in painting only increased during the 19th century. With more
tourists, ilustrados and foreigners demanding souvenirs and decorations from the
country, tipos del pais developed in painting. These watercolor paintings show the
different types of inhabitants in the Philippines in their different native costumes that
show their social status and occupation. It also became an album of different native
costumes. Damian Domingo y Gabor (ca. 1790-1832) was the most popular artist who
worked in this style.

In the early 19th century, the rise of the ilustrados saw a rise in the art of portraiture. The
need to adorn their newly constructed bahay-na-bato and the want to document their
new found wealth and social status, the ilustrados commissioned painters to make
portraits of themselves. The works of painters like Simon Flores,Antonio
Malanticand Justiniano Ascunsion captured the intricately designed jewelry and fashion
accessories, the minuet details of the embroidered clothes, and ornately designed
domestic furniture of the patrons. The painstaking attention to minuet details
characterized miniaturismo.

Governor General Narciso Claveria in 1849 issued a decree that all Philippine natives
should assume Spanish names. Letras Y Figuras, (letters and figures), a style
developed by Jose Honorato Lozano, combines both tipos del pais and genre paintings
by forming the letters of the patron’s name from figures of people in local costumes
doing everyday activities. It also utilized landscape scenes as background.
In 1821, Damian Domingo opened the first formal fine arts school in the country in his
house, the Academia de Dibujo. Perhaps realizing his importance to Philippine art
history, Damian Domingo is known for having made the first self-portrait in the country.
In 1823, the Real Sociedad Economica Filipina de Amigos del Pais (Royal Economic
Society of the Friends of the Colony) opened their own art school. In 1826, the society
offered Domingo to be the professor in their school, in effect merging the two art
schools. In 1828, Domingo was promoted to school director. Domingo must have taught
miniaturismo to his students, but a publication by the academy entitled Elementos de
Perspectiva (Elements of Perspective) suggests that he must have also taught the
classical ideals of the European academies. Due to lack of funds and probably due to
Domingo’s death in 1832, the school eventually closed in1834.

In 1850, under the Junta de Commercio, a new art school, the Academia de Dibujo y
Pintura, was opened with 70 enrollees. Enrique Nieto y Zamora, a new employee at
the Post Office and a graduate of the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, was
appointed as acting director of the academy. Paintings by Spanish master were brought
in to serve as models for the students, propagating the European academic style of
painting – using grand subject matter from classical Greek and Roman mythologies,
depicting historical scenes, and the use of chiaroscuro.

The academy was renamed Escuela de Dibujo, Pintura y Grabado in 1889. It was later
incorporated with theEscuela de Artes y Oficios in 1891. In 1893, the school of arts and
trades was separated from the academy. The academy was later elevated to
the Escuela Superior de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado.

Other subject matter became increasingly popular such as genre, landscapes

(paisajes), and bodegones (still life) with artists like Simon Flores, Lorenzo Guerrero,
Felix Martinez, Paz Paterno and her half sisterAdelaida Paterno. Flores’ two extant
works, Primeras Letras and Feeding the Chicken show the close bond between mother
and child.

The academic style was still favored by the church and government and was used for
religious icons. The miniaturist style, though, was favored by ilustrado patrons and
continued to prosper.

Several Filipino painters had the chance to study and work

abroad. Among them were Juan Novicio Luna and Felix
Resureccion Hidalgo who became the first international
Filipino artists when they won the gold and silver medals in
the 1884 Madrid Exposition.

Luna’s academic painting Spoliarium won gold medal. It

showed the dead and dying Roman Gladiators being
dragged into the basement of the Coliseum. It is often interpreted as an allusion to
Imperial Spain’s oppression of the natives. Though winning the gold medal, Luna was
not awarded the Medal of Excellence, the top award for the competition, because he
was a Filipino. The King of Spain, to assuage Luna’s feelings, commissioned him to
paint The Battle at Lepanto. Hidalgo won the silver medal for Virgenes christianas
expuestas al populacho or Christian Virgins Exposed to the Public. The feat of Luna
and Hidalgo caught the attention of Dr. Jose Rizal, the Philippine’s National Hero, that in
a gathering of Filipinos in Madrid, he gave a speech praising Luna and Hidalgo for their
mastery and nationalism

In the 1892, Columbus Quadricentennial Art Contest competition sponsored by La

Illustracion Filipina, a Filipino weekly publication, a 16-year-old girl named Carmen
Zaragosa won first prize for her painting “Dos Intelligencias.”In the 1895 Esposicion
Regional de Filipinas in Manila, Zaragosa won a Cooper medal for her painting.
Fourteen other women artists participated. Five of them won Cooper medals and four
won honorable mentions.

B. Sculpture

Of all the new art forms introduced, the natives took to sculpture instantly. The carving
of anito was transformed into sculpture of the saints. These santos were used primarily
for the church altars and retablos. It also replaced the anitos in the altars of the natives’
homes.

Carvings for churches include altarpieces called retablos (usually with niches for the
icons), the central point of any Catholic church. The retablo houses the tabernacle and
the image of the town’s patron saint. Usually referred to as a “cabinet of saints”, one
would see a hierarchy of saints depending on their importance to the townspeople. The
patron saint would be in the middle; less important saints would be in the periphery. The
most elaborate retabloscan be seen in the San Agustin Church in Intramuros.

Other parts of the church that may have carvings are church doors, pulpits,
and carrozas (floats that carry the saints for processions). The façade of churches may
be carved from adobe, coral stone, and volcanic rock, among others. It may have
carved images of saints, floral decorations or leaf decors. In the case of the Miag-ao
Church in Iloilo, the façade is decorated with a carved image of St. Christopher carrying
the Christ Child on his shoulders under a coconut tree.

Relleves (carved images in relief) usually depict the Via Crucis. It may also show holy
images in religious scenes.

The earliest known sculptor in the Philippines is the 17 th century sacristan, sculptor and
silversmith Juan de los Santos (ca. 1590 – ca. 1660) of San Pablo, Laguna. A few of
his extant works may be found at the San Agustin Convent museum.

Except for de los Santos, carvers were anonymous artisans before the 19 th century. But
in the mid-19thcentury, with the rise of the ilustrados and the opening of the country to
international trade, higher artistic standards were demanded from the carvers/sculptors.
A number of Filipinos found fame in sculpture such asCrispulo Hocson, Romualdo de
Jesus, Leoncio Asuncion and Isabelo Tampinco.

The second half of the 19th century, as travel in and around the country considerably
improved, saw a marked increase in the demand for non-religious souvenirs. Tipos del
pais (human types of the country) sculptures, showing ordinary people doing everyday
activities and wearing their local costumes, became the favorite. They also depicted the
heads of the various ethnic groups.

The inclusion of sculpture in the Academia de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado de Manila’s

curriculum in 1879 formalized training in sculpture. Known sculptors during this time
were Bonifacio Arevalo, Graciano Nepomuceno, Marcelo Nepomuceno, and Anselmo
Espiritu. Philippine National Hero Jose P. Rizal was a sculptor. He took up woodcarving
lessons from Romualdo de Jesus and Paete master carver Jose Caancan.

Paete, a small woodcarving town in Laguna, Southern Luzon, produced the finest santo
carvers during this period. The most prominent name is Mariano Madriñan who won a
gold medal in the 1883 Amsterdam Exposition for his Mater Dolorosa (Sorrowful
Mother).

In 1889, the first woman student, Pelagia Mendoza y Gotianquin, was accepted in the
Academia de Dibujo Y Pintura by then Director Lorenzo Rocha. In 1892, Pelagia
Mendoza won in the 1892 Columbus Quadricentennial Art Contest with a bust of
Christopher Columbus.

C. GRAPHIC ARTS

Engraving was introduced in the 1590’s by the Spanish colonizers. In 1593, the
Dominicans published the La Doctrina Christiana en la Lengua Española y Tagala (The
Christian Doctrine in the Spanish and Tagalog Language), first book printed in the
country. On it was a woodcut engraving of St. Dominic by Juan de Veyra, a Chinese
convert.

The religious orders owned printing presses and printed mostly prayer books and
estampas. The estampas(prints of miraculous images) usually featured portraits of
saints and religious scenes. Estampas andestampitas (smaller version of estampas)
were distributed during town fiestas to the natives.

In the 18th century, copper etching became more popular. Filipino engravers like
Francisco Suarez, Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay, Laureano Atlas, and Felipe Sevilla were
the first Filipino artists to sign their works. And with words like “Indios Tagalo” or “Indio
Filipino”, affixed their social status on their works.

Francisco Suarez (ca. 1690 – ca. 1762) and Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay (1702 – ca.
1765) collaborated to depict landscapes, genre scenes and flora and fauna on the
borders of maps commissioned by Fr. Murillo Velarde in 1733. These were probably the
first secular images done in the country. The two also illustrated the pasyon written by
Gaspar Aquino de Belen entitled Mahal na Passion ni Jesu Christong Panginoon Natin
Na Tola (The Holy Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Verse), possibly the first pasyon
written in the country.

Laureano Atlas made religious scenes and images. He did one of the earliest known
portrait engraved on copper, a portrait of Archbishop Juan Angel Rodriguez in 1743.
Phelipe Sevilla depicted scenes from the life of Christ.

Filipino engravers were the first to depict and reproduce brown madonnas. The Nuestra
Senora de Guia was made in 1711, the oldest Marian image. The natives worship this
icon like an anito.

Copperplate engraving remained popular until the introduction of a new printing

medium. Lithography was introduced and this facilitated the printing of newspapers and
periodicals in the country. It also enabled the printing of the local edition of Fr. Manuel
Blanco’s Flora de Filipinas in 1878.

One of the popular newspapers during the 19th century was La Illustracion
Filipina published by Don Jose Zaragosa. It had more than 100 issues from November
1891 to February 1895. It usually featured lithograph prints of people, landscapes and
genre scenes. Since most of the family members know how to draw (including Carmen
Zaragosa mentioned earlier), some of their works must have been published here.