323. A Picker Picks a Peter: SAN PEDRO DE BANGKAL

The last time I was in Bangkal, Makati was around 2012. Years before, the barangay had established a reputation as the thrift shop center of Makati, where one could find one-of-a-kind vintage items, and even antiques buried in the jumbled assortment of second-hand "pre-loved" items, garage sale consignments, not to mention the debris and detritus of demolished old houses.

But by 2012, the place had been discovered by antique dealers, and the thrill of the hunt had diminished as the price tags became more expensive and old item became more scarce.  The mishmash of articles have also been  organized, i.e. Italian decors, Orientalia, etc., stripping the place of its randomness, which was part of the exciting picking experience.

So, I went there, expecting nothing, and saw nothing—until I went to the Bangkal depot—that big compound near the end of Evangelista St., where they drop off all the found items from here and abroad for processing.

 

There were also stalls there, where objects are laid out on tables and consoles, in disarray. This was more to my liking, my idea of a picker’s paradise—the organized chaos was a sign of many possibilities!! True enough, a table in a back stall caught my eye. For there, behind some kitschy woodcarvings, I espied  an antique folk santo, a San Pedro, badly out-of-place amidst crystal ashtrays, resin figurines and decors !!

It’s not a remarkable San Pedro its carving shallow and unrefined, as all folksy santos are. But its condition is impeccable—its height alone is 16 inches, inclusive of the half-inch base. Made of medium wood, the rather hefty santo owes much  its charm to its color, still brilliant all these years. Save for the missing key—San Pedro’s square base, paint, hand, base—are all intact.

The image has been painted with house paint—latex—using just 3 colors—black (San Pedro’s hair), yellow (tunic), and brown (cape). The tulip-like strokes that decorate the garments are painted in silver paint, perhaps to mimic metallic embroidery. These floral flourishes, I have seen in many Visayan santos. The provenance was later confirmed by the Seller.

I had to keep the good saint in my hands, as by then, the place was swarming with pickers, Mentally, I estimated the price of the santo, all things considered.  When I approached the Seller to ask for the santo’s  price tag,  I was stunned (but happy) that it was way below my estimate. I made an offer, which she gladly accepted, and San Pedro de Bangkal, the keeper of the gate—was mine to keep.

178. NATIVITY NIÑOS

 WHAT CHILD IS THIS? A large, 15 inch antique Nativity Nino from Guatemala, with a short haircut (Personal Collection).

Christmas is a time not just for bringing out Nativity sets but also for heirloom figures of the reclining Infant Jesus, to be put on display at home--wrapped in swaddling clothes, and placed in a makeshift manger, often under the Christmas tree. In the early hours of Christmas, just after the Christmas Eve mass, the carved figure of the Child Jesus (Bambino, Niño de la Navidad) is taken out from the belen, to be kissed by the faithful as an act of reverence on the occasion of His birth. A spread of antique and vintage "Nativity Ninos" are on this spread .

ON MARY'S LAP IS SLEEPING. A contemporary Bambino, carved in wood from the Vecin Workshop, just 6 inches long. (Francisco Vecin Collection).

WHOM ANGELS GREET WITH ANTHEMS SWEET. A century-old, anatomically-correct Nino, with pronounced Chinese features. He wears a silver diadem and holds an or, now lost. One finger is stuck in his mouth.

WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCH ARE KEEPING. A 14 inch sleeping wooden Nino, with clenched fists, of vintage make. (Francisco Vecin Collection)

THIS, THIS IS CHRIST THE KING. An ancient Nino from Bohol, carved from heavy wood, with its original encarna, now peeling with age. It is just 8 inches long. Its legs are crossed. (Personal Collection)

WHOM SHEPHERDS GUARD. An antique Nino of lightwood, with feet repaired, 7 inches long (Personal Collection).

AND ANGELS SING.An old, lifelike carving of the Child Jesus with full hair and defined musculature. 8 inches long. (Francisco Vecin Collection)

HASTE, HASTE TO BRING HIM LAUD. A miniature Bambino, 6 inches long, of contemporary make, from the Vecin Workshop. (Francisco Vecin Collection)

THE BABE. An antique figure of the sleeping Jesus, with a stocky body and crossed legs. A superb folk example just 6 inches in length. (Francisco Vecin Collection)

THE SON OF MARY. An old Belen figure of the Child Jesus, put on display during the holidays at Our Lady of Grace Church, Mabalacat City. Devotees kiss this image after the Midnight Mass.

170. THE ROBERTO VILLANUEVA RELIGIOUS COLLECTION

Comprehensive samples of Fil-Hispanic colonial art are on display with the Villanueva painting collection. They consist of large and small sculptures and a few paintings. If sculptural pieces form the great majority of the collection, it is because sculpture was the premier art of that epoch. The woodcarver had no need to purchase any material as wood was available for the getting. Too, sculptural pieces had only two great enemies—fires and termites. If hardwood was used, the danger of termites was eliminated. In fact, some softwood, like batikuling, was also immune to termites. 

Many of the sculptural pieces extant were literally resurrected from their graves. Reverence for images was such that they were never destroyed. If one had no more use for a partially broken image, the custom was to bury it. Many have been excavated from their graves. Paintings , on the other hand, involved some expenditure on the part of the artist. The traditional support for paintings was either wood or cloth. The painters mixed their own colors which consisted of Chinese cinnabar with local pigments and gums.

Needless to say, paintings do not keep well in the tropics. This is an added reason why they are relatively rare in collections. Naïve pieces form the majority of the sculptural pieces in the Villanueva collection. It is the consensus among collectors that the naïve pieces are far more interesting than the sophisticated ones. Their beauty lies in their imperfections. A few look as if they were created by all-thumbs sculptors. In others, the gaps between the artists’ ambitions and abilities vary considerably.

 But what they lack in technical execution is more than made-up by an individuality of spirit not found in the more sophisticated pieces. The sophisticated pieces can be said to represent the Catholization of the Philippines while the naïve pieces represents the Philippinization of that Catholicism. In the beginning were the saints, and the saints were with art, and the saints were art. That is the historical commencement of Philippine art.

This is not to say that there were no graven images before the conquest. Antonio Pigafetta, who recorded Magellan’s discovery of the Philippines, describe the pre-Hispanic images: “These idols are of hollow wood without any back parts. They have arms open, the feet turned up, with legs open, and a large face with four very large teeth like those of wild boars, and they are painted all over”. Unfortunately, the early conquistadores were soldiers and priests—not anthropologists—and before the new gods could be introduced, the old gods had to be destroyed.

 The first step towards the Christianization of the Philippines was the systematic destruction of all pagan idols. The extermination was so thorough that today, no visible vestige of the old gods exist even in museums. So while there was a primitive form of art prior to the conquest, available art specimens only date back to the Hispanic period. So it is the beginning of art and the saints, or the saints and art, but it is a beginning after a Deluge.

 Spanish evangelization of the Philippines urgently required two things: churches and images. It would be naïve to think that the early Filipinos could readily grasp the spiritual message of Christ. What they saw were new idols enthroned in more imposing altars and paraded in spectacular processions.

To all intents and purposes, they were more powerful than the old gods. Suffice it to say that images became the main decoration of Filipino homes. Roughly speaking, there were tow kinds of images produced in the Phhilippines—the naïve meaning “having native or unaffected simplicity” and the sophisticated, meaning “refined, subtlized and highly complicated”.

 The naïve pieces were carved by persons who, wanting an image of a saint of their particular devotion, simply went ahead and carved one with their bolos or other tools on hand. Needless to say, this type of craftsmen had limited skills and carved not what they wanted but what they could. The classic Spanish description for this kind of sculptor was, “Si sale con barba, San Anton; si sale sin barba, la Purisima Concepcion”—“If it comes out with a beard, it is San Antonio; if it comes out without a beard, it is the Purisima Concepcion”. Other naïve pieces were carved by skilled, self-taught woodcarvers. These pieces were mainly for home use, although there are some beautiful naïve pieces in many churches today.

 Who were the iconoclasts who created these images?

 The oldest image in the Philippines is the Santo Nino left by Magellan during his fatal trip to cebu. It is no doubt one of the earliest prototypes for the Santo Nino explosion that was to follow. It is not illogical to assume that when the Spaniards started to look for local people who could carve saints, the first people they sought were the Filipinos that carved the pagan idols decsrobed by Pigafetta.

This is a very important point because if this hypothesis is true, then, the pagan tradition did not altogether die but simply continued in another form. It is very possible that the last of the pagan carvers were also the first Christian carvers.

 The second oldest image is the Nuestra Senora de Guia, which was found, (atop a pandan tree) on 19 May 1571, by one of the conquistadores, being worshipped by the natives, the day Manila was conquered. To date, there is a dispute as to whether the image is Christian or pagan. The figure was carved from two pieces of local wood: the body of molave, the head of narra. The facial features, attire and the way the hands meet on the breast indicate a Hindu origin. Some have speculated that the image may have come from Christian Goa.

It is a historical fact that Legaspi’s troops met a Japanese named Paul, who was wearing a Theatin cap, and claimed he was a Christian. Did some Christians precede Legaspi’s expedition to Manila? The great possibility exists that Our Lady of Guidance was a pre-Hispanic Filipino pagan idol. It is made of local wood and it was being worshipped by the natives. Tradition has it that the very first santeros were Chinese. Those who advance this theory like to point out to marked Orinetal features of many of the early images.

There is no doubt that some of the earliest iconographers were Chinese. It is also a fact that some of the images were carved in South China. But more important is the fact that the overwhelming majority of iconographic art in the Philippines was produced by Filipinos. The best proof is that it has a distinct quality not found in Europe and South America, and certainly not China. From the conquista to the early decades of the 19th century Filipino painters and sculptors confined themselves to religious subjects. It was not till the second decade of the last century that the Filipino iconographers started to branch out into secular art.

--  Excerpted from the catalog booklet, THE VILLANUVA COLLECTION OF PHILIPPINE PAINTINGS, Publication Nov. 4, 1976, (c) Philippines. Published by the Roberto T. Villanueva Foundation, Inc. All pictures from the same booklet.

169. The Bangkal Picker II: MORE THRIFT SHOP SANTOS

Just a few days after I went home from Bangkal with a cache of folk santos, the same seller called me up to say that she has some fresh stocks that I may like. She even sent me, by phone, photos of a pair of folksy-looking but solidly made santos. I thought they were quite interesting, so during my Monday lunchbreak,  I taxied to her shop to look at the pair of santos she was offering.

They turned out to be an appealing pair, almost of the same size, and obviously carved by the same artist. They are even painted the same way, and the colors have retained their vividness all these years. Though done by one artist, they are carved from different wood.

The first santo, a Sta. Maria, is the taller and heftier santo, about 12 inches tall. She is made of santol wood, and the body is almost cylindrical in shape, following the contour of a straight santol branch or small trunk. The cape and tunic are fancifully painted with trefoil flowers growing from a leafy vine.The naive carving of her features betrays the folksy character of this image. Nailed on her head is a rusted tin crown, with some missing tin parts.

San Vicente is equally interesting because even though he is smaller, he has more details--from the tin halo to his pair of tin wings (amazing how his wings have survived without being detached from his body!). he has extremely short arms, which add to his appeal, and is painted in almost the same way as the Virgin, with more of the leafy patterns on his vestment, rather than the flowers.

He could very well be the Virgin's twin, judging from San Vicente's facial carving--with a narrow head, long nose and a cheeky face.Of course, I bought the pair for a very reasonable price, much lower that one would have paid for in a regular antique shop.

But I was in for more surprises, as when I went to the larger Bangkal warehouse and started poking my nose around, I found more folk santos--a San Pedro and another unidentified female santa. Their coloration was much more vibrant, and despite San Pedro's missing key and the snta's lost hands, they were in great shape!

San Pedro was made of lighter wood, and it only took a bit of waxing to bring out its excellent features. I replaced the key with an antique skeleton key that I've had for years.

The second santa-- a very hefty piece-- stumped me as at first glance, it looked like a generic Sta. Maria, but the longer I looked at it, the more it resembled Sta. Teresita de Nino Jesus.She wears what looks like a nun's habit, and the floral patterns on her dress are consistent with the Carmelite saint's flower attributes. So, for now, she  is St,.Therese of the Child Jesus to me.

These santos turned out to be even much more affordable, so I brought them home with me too--thrift shop santos that have now become the latest treasures in my collection.

164. For Pete's Sake: THE SAVING OF SAN PEDRO APOSTOL

 Sometime in 2006, my Makati santero, Mr. Francisco “Kiko” Vecin called me up to ask if I was interested in acquiring a vintage San Pedro Apostol that someone had brought to his shop. Carvers, collectors, dealers and sellers often bring all sorts of santo stuff to his Makati talyer—most to fix, others to just dispose, as Mang Kiko, too, was a formidable collector of antique santos. 

At that time, I had already taken an interest in Holy Week santos, so after work, I decided to drop by his shop to see the santo. I was a bit disappointed that San Pedro was just 44 inches high, its body a bit stiff and crude. The arms were not even articulated. It came with a carved rooster—St. Peter’s attribute -- that had incorrect proportions—it was squat and stout, and stood on a solomonic-like pole, attached to a plain, rectangular base. I didn’t even think that the santo was a perfect match for such a poorly-carved, featureless rooster.

When I inspected the head, the name of the carver, which I had now forgotten, was inscribed on the neck. Mang Kiko told me that the carver made the piece in the early 70s, which, to me, was too recent as I favor only antique pieces. The thing that was going for this particular image was its high degree of craftsmanship; its carved details, following classical tradition, were outstanding. San Pedro’s facial expression was uncannily hyper-realistic. I made an offer, which Mang Kiko communicated to the seller. The moment I left his shop, however, I was becoming lukewarm about San Pedro.

Would I also deny this santo, who, in turn, denied Christ not once, but three times in His time of Passion? But too late-- the next day, Mang Kiko called to say that the Seller had agreed to my offer. I mustered enough gumption to ask Mang Kiko, if he could renegotiate with the seller to lower further his price, given the santo’s less-than-desirable size, age and condition. I could sense Mang Kiko’s growing frustration—but, bless him, he made one more attempt to talk to the seller with my second, lower offer.

To my amazement, the Seller, who must have been in dire financial fix, agreed! So that’s how I came to bring home San Pedro where it languished in a room in my house for months, then years. I saw no need to have it restored as our town already had a Holy Week San Pedro.

Over three years later, I was at the place of Pampanga's best-known master restorer, Tom Joven, discussing a project when the subject of this particular San Pedro came up. Apparently, Tom had seen a photo of it posted online and thought it was good enough to be completely restored. I took up his offer and brought San Pedro to him, with no particular timetable in mind.

My only requirement was that the santo’s arm be made articulated and that the rooster be separated from the santo. I also asked that the column on where the rooster rested be changed into a pillar.

 I happened to find a silver-plated rooster on ebay which was sized better to match San Pedro, so I asked Tom to replace the image’s original wooden rooster with this metal figurine.

San Pedro was left with Tom at around June of 2008; I was hoping it would be finished in time for my January 2009 birthday, but when that day came and went, I just completely forgot about it.

So many things have happened since then—I went away on a month-long trip, my mother got sick and then passed away. I was not able to track the progress of the work, as I had more pressing things in mind.

Eventually, I received a text from Tom: San Pedro is done, at last. My first glimpses of the apostle-saint was through these photos sent on facebook.

 I was completely stunned by the transformation. The swarthy, gritty face of San Pedro has been replaced by an encarna done in the Italian religious painting tradition, marked by a pale complexion and highlighted with a pinkish blush. The carved hair and beard, once dark, were lightened.

The arms have also been articulated; the rooster replaced by my metal figurine on a new, more streamlined, yet graceful column.

Metal accessories have also been prepared by Tom—from the small beaten silver-plated halo and two keys—iconographic attrbutes of the saint, one key to open the gates of heaven, and the other, for the gates of hell.

 I didn’t have vestments made yet for San Pedro, but I scrounged around and borrowed pieces here and there from my other santos, so that I could visualize how he would look like, robed and dressed.

The results are in the next few pictures:

The santo that I nearly passed up turned out to be quite a handsome work of sacred art, ready to inspire devotion to those who look up to this apostle-saint who eventually became our first Pope.

I am glad I had the santo restored, even if it felt like it took forever. Like the selection of a new Pope, it was worth the wait. Viva il Papa! Viva Apung Iru! 

161. The Bangkal Picker: THRIFT SHOP SANTO FINDS

I have previously written about Bangkal in Makati—that little barangay near South Super Highway that has earned the reputation as Manila’s foremost garage sale community. Its main street, Evangelista, is lined with side streets filled with shops—more accurately, converted apartment garages—that offer a wild assortment of used goods, a mix of American and local items from furniture, clothes to house décor, serviceable and damaged, threadbare and slightly used, and if you’re lucky, vintage and antiques!!

 In the last two years, I have scored a couple of santos from Bangkal, which may not be of comparable quality with those real antique shops in Ermita, but which nevertheless, are genuine antiques. Most santos I have found are of the folk variety, and though most have missing parts like most antique santos, they pose a lot of restoration challenges to me. Most important of all is their affordability—I have paid no more than Php 4,000 for these antique pieces, with a typical item averaging about 2K each.

 Last year, in one of the shops, I saw this small bonehead santo representing the Virgin Mary. It is only about 8 inches tall, but is done in the style of Bohol polychromes santas, right down to the peana, which had crescent moon “horns” supported by a 4-sided base. The body has lost its paint and only a layer of dried up, colorless pigments remain.

 The head itself is maybe of a fish bone, just about an inch high, with not much carved features as one can see. Being hollow, it had been stuck on a peg on the neck of the image.

 As recent as a month ago, I chanced upon a small trove of folk santos in a second-hand shop. The proprietor tuned out to be a Kapampangan whose husband was once a dealer in Cebu. What remained of their store stock had now been transported to Bangkal, where I happily saw them first on one rainy afternoon visit there. I just had to get this well-made, and very colourful San Vicente Ferrer which probably date from the 60s or even 70s. Its tin wings and halo are intact, the enamel paint still vivid and bright. 2K is what I paid for it.

 Actually, there were 3 San Vicentes available in the shop, and I chose the best-looking one. But I couldn’t resist the other nose-less image, which appealed to me mainly because of the folksy colors and the fact that it was carved from a solid piece of softwood. I am sure I could outfit this with a pair of tin wings. It was priced as the first one—2K.

 Costing a bit more was this very heavy and complete tableau of a sword-wielding San Miguel fighting with the Devil who is shown caught underfoot. It is a vintage piece, possibly no more than 50 years old, but it is outstanding for its creative representation of the archangel all painted in house paint, and the Devil that had a bent nail for a tail. Set on a stoney mound on a block of wood, I had to handcarry this piece which I got for the princely sum of 4K. A Mabini shop would easily put a price tag of up to 5 figures for this San Miguel.

 Less than a week after my visit to Bangkal, the same shop owner was calling to inform me that a few more santos have arrived from Cebu. I forced the shop owner to open her store on a Sunday and these are what I saw:

 A primitive, paint-less Virgin of heavy molave wood was standing on the entrance. I looked at it and it appeared to be carved from old wood, and I sensed that it was just vintage, and not an antique as it was touted to be. Remnants of white escayola remain, but I could not find any faint trace of colored paint. Suspicious also was the way the head was carved from a separate piece of wood, then plugged and nailed onto the top of the body. The hands were all accounted for, which furthered bolstered my feeling that this could be a ‘new antique’. As my collecting mantra goes, “when in doubt, don’t”, so I passed up this image.

 Certainly, the next tabletop image shown me was a genuine antique. It is a representation of the Immaculate Concepcion carved in the naïve style. That was where its charm lay—from its almost comical facial features to its seemingly paralyzed hands, stretched out straight from the flat body. 

Its coloration was fabulous, reminding me of old, brilliantly painted folk santos from Mexico, right down to the floral motifs painted on the cape of the Virgin. This is an old, primitive piece, carved by an untrained artisan.

 A less impressive piece was this smaller, shallow-carved santo that seemed to be like San Pablo, which I also had to leave there. There were also crucifixes of varying stages of completeness; one with a corpus, one without, and still another without a crossbar. They’ll be good for future restoration prjects, but for now, I am satisfied with my found pieces.

 I have heard that a few antique dealers have started to descend upon Bangkal looking for santos and other antiques. You can beat them at their picking game—just come for regular visits and don’t be afraid to scrounge. You will never know what you will find, so expect the unexpected—all for the right budget!