Spanish Colonial Period

(1521-1898)
What Kinds of Art were developed during Spanish Colonization?
• Art that flourished during the Spanish colonial period conformed to the demands of the
church and the colonial state.
• The art forms from that period are referred to stylistically and culturally as religious art,
lowland Christian Art, or Folk Art.
• During this period, cruciform churches following the shape of the Latin cross were built.
In keeping with the prevailing design of Hispanic churches, the Baroque style was
predominantly employed; they were characterized by grandeur, drama, and elaborate
details that purposely appealed to the emotions.
• Examples of Baroque Churches that have survived to this day are the San Agustin church
in Manila, Morong Church in Rizal, Paoay Church in Ilocos Norte, and Sto. Tomas de
Villanueva Church in Miag-ao, Iloilo.
• Baroque Churches In the Philippines is a fusion of both native and European elements,
prompting some art historians to refer to the style as Colonial Baroque, or Philippine or
Tropical Baroque.
San Agustin Church Morong Church Paoay Church in
in Manila in Rizal Ilocos Norte

Sto. Tomas de Villanueva

Church in Miag-ao, Iloilo
• Images of saints and Interpretations of Biblical narratives were considered essential to
worship. Under the strict watch and patronage of the church, images were produced
through Painting, Sculpting, and engraving.
• During the 17th century, Chinese artisans, under Spanish supervision were engaged in
making Icons or Saints or Santos (in the vernacular) in wood and ivory; building churches
and houses; as well as making furniture. Their involvement resulted in works that drew
upon Chinese Features and techniques. An example is a painting of Nuestra Señora del
Rosario in Bohol, the image of which was said to be inspired from Kuanyin, the Deity of
mercy in East Asian Buddhism.
• Baroque is evident in the expressive and emotional characteristic of the santo. In colonial
churches, santos are displayed In a decorative altar niche called the retablo.
• The retablo integrates architecture and sculpture and is often embellished with rosettes,
scrolls, pediments and solomonic columns which may be gilded or polychromed.
• The Via Crucis is an important inclusion in colonial churches which are presented either as
a series of 14 paintings or relief sculptures depicting Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.
• Tromp L’oeil in French “fooling the eye”. It refers to paintings that give a heightened
illusion of three-dimensionality.
• Church altars are sometimes decorated with carved figurative protrusions on the surface
called relleves; or with the organic designs of hammered silver or the plateria. The
plateria technique is also applied in the body of carroza, where the santos are paraded
during town processions.
• Spaniards brought western musical instruments like the pipe organ, the violin, the guitar,
and the piano.
• Philippine musical forms also took on a very European flavor – with new rhythms,
melodies and musical forms, that Filipinos proceeded to adopt them and make their own.
• Catholic liturgical music was introduced in1742 when the Archbishop of Manila, Juan
Rodriguez Angel, established a singing school at the Manila Cathedral that thought
western church music.
• The Santo Domingo and San Agustin convents would soon teach choral music to young
boys and would soon create Filipino composers like Marcelo Adonay (1848-1928).
• Outside the Manila, a musical form based on the Catholic faith would emerge in the
pasyon or pabasa as it is sometimes called – or the biblical narration of Christ’s passion
chanted in an improvised melody.
• Among the lowland Christian communities of Pampanga, Ilocos, Bicol, and Iloilo, secular
music forms such as the awit and the corrido soon Flourished. These were musical forms
that were chanted stories based on European literature and history and were popular even
among the peasantry who learned the verses purely by rote.
• During the latter half of the 19th century when revolutionary sentiments began to develop,
the kundiman which usually spoke of resignation and fatalism, became a vehicle for
resistance. The lyrics were that of unrequited love, except that the love object was the
Philippines who would be cleverly concealed as a beautiful woman.
• Examples of kundiman songs are Kundiman ni Abdon (Abdon’s Love Song) – a kundiman
which became a feature of protest actions against Martial Law during the seventies, and
the still popular Bayan Ko (My country), a kundiman which experienced renewed
popularity during the EDSA People Power Revolution of 1986.
• Among Mangyans who inhabit the Island province of Mindoro, Bamboo poles are cut into
smaller nodes and are etched with Baybayin script used to compose short poems that tell
of courtship and other emotional concerns.
• In the town of Ticao, located in southern province of Leyte, a huge stone was discovered
that contained Baybayin writing believed to be an invocation for a safe journey by sea.
• Spanish colonization brought with it the Printing Technology.
• Printed Literature came in the form of catechism and prayer books in Spanish that were
use not only to teach the local inhabitants to read and write, but more so to evangele.
• During the 19th century, a popular form of musical theater was imported from Spain.
• The zarzuela or sarsuwela was an operetta which features singing and dancing
interspersed with prose dialogue which allowed the story to be carried out in song.
• Severino Reyes and Hermogenes Ilagan, who wrote sarsuwelas in Tagalog were the
most distinguished playwrights of their day with Honorata ‘Atang’ dela Rama (National
Artist for theater and Music, awarded 1987) as their most celebrated leading actress.
• The first senakulo or Passion play was written in 1704 by Gaspar Aquino de Belen. Its
narrative was culled entirely fro the biblical account of Christ’s passion and death on the
cross, adapted into verse form and translated into the local language. Performed during
Lent and may last in three days.
• In some areas, the senakulo was tweaked to convey Christ’s Suffering as a metaphor for
the suffering of Filipinos under Spanish colonial rule.
• The komedya is another local theater form that emerged during the 19th century period. The
komedya depicts the conflict between the Muslims and Christian.
• Two types of komedya: komedya de santo or religious komedya and the secular komedya
• Komedya de Santo or religious komedya centers on the life of Christ or of any saint. It usually seen
during church celebrations. The actors move in stylized way, have extravagant costumes and
elaborately choreographed war scenes.
• The moro-moro is a type of secular komedya. The word ‘moro’ was derived from the Spanish word
for Moor or the North African Arabs who ruled parts of Spain from the eighth to the 15th century.
• A typical moro-moro story would usually involved a love story between a Christian hero and
Islamic heroine or vice versa.
• The trade and the viceroyalty arrangement also brought Mexican influences in Philippine folk
music and dance. Folk dances such as the cariñosa, pandanggo or fandango, polka, dansa and the
rigodon carry traces of the habañera, jota, and tango dances from Spain and its colonies.
• In the visual arts, paintings served an instructive function through visual interpretation of biblical
texts central to catholic devotion. An example is Heaven, Earth, and Hell (1850), a mural by Jose
Dans in Paete Church, Laguna. The painting seems to warn that a sinful life on earth would lead to
torment and eternal damnation.
Heaven, Earth, and Hell (1850)
• Basi Revolt, a series of 14 paintings by Esteban Villanueva. It chronicles the defeat of
Ilocanos who rebelled against the Spanish government’s monopoly of basi or rice wine in
1821.the paintings illustrate the bloody consequences of insurgent actions, an overt
reminder of the might of Spain over its colony.
• The reprographic art of printmaking was introduced in the Philippines as early as the 16th
century. Applying the technique of xylography or woodcut printing, Doctrina Christiana
(The Teachings of Christianity) was printed in 1593 in Spanish and in Tagalog by
Dominican Priest.
• Doctrina is the first printed book in the Philippines compiling song lyrics,
commandments, sacraments, and other catechetical material.
• In 1734, the Jesuit Priest Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde collaborated with homegrown talents,
the artist Francisco Suarez and the engraver Nicholas de la Cruz Bagay to produce Carta
Hydrographica y Choroghrapica de las Yslas Filipinas, the first scientific map of the
Philippines. Surrounding the map are vignettes of everyday life that focus on the different
“types” of people and their surroundings called tipos del pais.
• The Augustinian botanist Fr. Manuel Blanco produced an extensive compilation of
Philippine plants in Flora de Filipinas in 1878.
• Manila opening to international trade in 1834 and the Suez Canal in 1869 gained economic
benefits for the native elites.
• Ilustrado or the enlightened ones
• Pakil-born Marcelo Adonay who was recognized for his compositions based on the western
tradition of Gregorian chants
• In the domestic realm, families tended to their altars comprised of delicate santos place in a
viriña, a bell-shaped glass case; or urna, a humbler. Domestic version of a retablo, often
attributed to the craftsmanship of artists from the Visayan region.
• Simon Flores’s painting Portrait of the Quiazon Family, 1800 documents the family’s
affluence: the magnificent interior of the family’s home, the mother’s jewelry, the delicate
fabric and embroidery of their clothing, and their dignified poses.
• Other renowned miniatures painters include Antonio Malantic, Isidro Arceo, Dionisio de
Castro, and Justiniano Asuncion also rendered portraits of individuals.
• In 1821, Damian Domingo, the painter known for his watercolor albums of tipos del pais
established the first art school in the country right at his studio in Binondo, Manila.
• The Academia de Dibujo was eventually absorbed by the Real Sociedad Economica
Filipina de Amigos del Pais where Domingo served as director. Closed down in 1834
after Domingo’s death and reopened in the 1850s.
• Peninsulares , a term used particularly during the colonial period to refer to Spanish-born
residents of the Philippines.
• The Academia-trained Lorenzo Guerrero painted The Water Carrier, which exemplifies
the use of chiaroscuro in genre of the late 19th century .
• Pampanga-born, Simon Flores also produced genre scenes. The Primeras Letras, 1890,
which features a woman teaching a child how to read, is a distinct example painting.
• In 1884, the expatriates Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo won medals in the
Madrid Exposition. Luna won gold for Spoliarium: while Hidalgo garnered a silver
medal for Virgenes Christianas Expuestas Al Populacho.
• Rizal’s famous sayings, “genius knows no country.”
• España y Filipinas, 1886, featuring two women ascending a flight of Stairs. Luna’s
painting.
 Spoliarium Virgenes Christianas
Expuestas al Populacho

Primeras Letras