350. Winging his way from ebay to my altar: SAN VICENTE FERRER

The popular online bidding site, ebay, is very strict with the sale of ivory  on its site, and since 1990, you can no longer engage in the international trade or sale of new ivory. The sale of ivory items made before 1947 can be freely bought and sold, though importers and exporters need a permit. 

But even with these rules, ebay buyers tend to pass up on antique ivory santos, after considering all other factors, not to mention, risks. That was why, when I saw a Manila-based seller offering a few antique ivory pieces on ebay, I was rather skeptical if they would sell at all. True enough, they didn’t. 

One of the antique ivories that piqued my interest was a stunning 11 inch, San  Vicente Ferrer figure, with head and hands of ivory. It was fitted on a manikin body, and dressed in its original Dominican vestments, complete with a capuce (habit hood), in traditional black--which has faded to blue—and white. 

The habit is lightly embroidered with gold thread, and the short shoulder hood features a 6 pointed star-shaped flower repeated on the white tunic.

The 19^th century ivory santo, as described in the original post, once belonged to a Catholic faithful who converted and became a born-again Christian, a religion which discourage the use of religious icons as objects of veneration. The antique ivory even bears a stamp of certification from the government that confirms its antiquity, which qualifies it for international sale.

San Vicente Ferrer is commonly depicted as a pudgy friar, with one hand pointing heavenward, with the other hand holding a book, to allude to his being a charismatic preacher. This santo, however, has an open palm in benediction. His right hand holds a tiny ‘leather-bound’ book, a nice detail, if I may add.

Missing was his pair of metal angel wings (San Vicente was considered as an angel), a halo and a globe base, in reference to his mission “to preach unto them that sit upon the earth, and over every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people".

With the fine antique ivory unsold, I lost no time in contacting the dealer whom I knew all along—and concluded the sale online.

This San Vicente was one of my earliest ivory pieces that was worked on in 2001 by renown ivory restorer, Dr. Raffy Lopez. The first thing he did was to remove the gold embroidery from the fraying cloth, then transferring them on new satin. Using the old habit pattern, he replicated the distinctive vestment of the Dominican saint.

He had a pair of  brass wings plated in gold made, using an old pattern, and opted to have a “paragua” halo, to avoid punching holes on the santo’s outfit and body.

Finally, he had an appropriate  wooden globe base made, elevating the santo to a height of 15 inches. San Vicente Ferrer may be one of the most common santos that one can find in antique shops, but this ivory version remains special to me, not only because it was one of the very first ivory pieces that I got to own, but also because of the of the circumstances of how I acquired it—not from an antique shop, a collector, or a ‘runner’, mind you—but from the comfort of my own home-- online, in front of my computer!

296. SANTOS FROM THE U.S.T. MUSEUM OF ARTS & SCIENCES

The oldest school-based museum in the Philippines--the University of Santo Tomas Museum of Arts and Sciences—is home to some of the finest collection of santos and other religious arts in the country. Founded in 1871 by Ramon Martinez, O.P., a professor of natural history, the museum showcases both scientific and artistic collections, including sacred objets d’art like religious imags, icons and paintings—a selection of which are featured below.

NTRA. SRA. DE LA ANUNCIACION

ASCENSION, FOLK SANTO

STO. DOMINGO GUZMAN & STO. TOMAS DE AQUINO

POLYCHROMED RELIEVE

BUEN PASTOR/ PASTORA

RELIEVES

PAINTED ICON ON WOOD

ST, JAMES, THE MOORSLAYER FOLK SANTO

OIL PAINTING ON CANVASS

SOURCES:

UST MUSEUM OF ARTS & SCIENCES COLLECTION, Printed Catalog, 1970s

268. MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY: Santo Sightings in Shops and Homes

AN IVORY CALVARIO SCENE.

Hobbies such as antique collecting can lead you to unexpected adventures, bringing you to ancestral residences, dealers’ homes and warehouses, thus affording you unexpected glimpses of Philippine religious art . Such examples are featured here, taken from as far as decades back.

MADONNA & CHILD, ivory masks and hands.

SAN ROQUE, in the folk style.

FOLK DOLOROSA and IVORY SAN LORENZO MARTIR

PACIENCIA, wooden processional.

Many of these items are long gone, some have gotten away, acquired by antique shops, and sold to collectors. Many still, are kept by the owners as part of their family heirlooms, lovingly cared whether folksy or fancy, in shabby or in pristine condition. Between then and now, I will not be surprised if a few of these have already been lost—either to theft, disasters or the ravages of time.

SAN VICENTE FERRER, NINO JESUS, AND ANTONIO DE PADUA

CRISTO BUSTO

IVORY DOLOROSA

IVORY CRUCIFIX, for home devotion.

All will agree though that these examples of Philippine sacred art are  glorious expressions of our faith, for to behold such beauty is to see the Light.

SAGRADA FAMILIA, ivory head and hands,

INMACULADA CONCEPCION, ivory head.

SAN ROQUE, classically carved wooden santo

STA. MARIA MAGDALENA, processional santo.

176. SAN VICENTE FERRER: The Puzzling Case of a Preacher Saint

 SAN VICENTE FERRER, the preacher-saint, with a stance unlike any other. He holds no book, and he doesn't have the "pointing finger" stance common to San Vicente santos. Instead, he has two clenched fists which could have held other items. Show here restored wearing vestments fashioned from an antique robe of another santa.

 Having studied the iconography of saints for quite awhile, I was confident that I could identify major santos in the Philippines based on emblems and attributes. I was stumped, however, by the riddle of a small folk santo figure, found in one of those friendly shops along Sta. Rita exit in Bulacan.

At first glance, I thought I had found a San Vicente Ferrer, the preacher saint and one of the most common santos in rural Philippines.

It had the trademark tonsure haircut, a portly face and figure, even a pair of tiny wings, nailed at a strange angle on the edge of the santo’s back, thus lying flat instead of seen spread out up front.

Even stranger was his pair of hands, which were attached to the wire arms to the body. Both were carved in a clenched position, as if holding objects. Traditionally, San Vicente is depicted holding a Book of Judgment with his left hand, and with his right arm and pointing finger raised upward, so there is certainly something amiss with this image. A clenched fist can’t possibly hold a book!

Could the santo have held a trumpet in his other hand—a rare attribute that symbolizes the announcement of the Judgement Day? Or could it be that this is composite image,  made from different santo parts? The santo head does not quite plug smoothly into the head hole of the mannequin body. But the legs, as one can see, are consistent with the make of the santo head, right down to the paint finish and proportion. Granted that this was a put-together santo, whose male santo body was used to complete the image—one with two clenched fists?

The only santo figures I know with the same stance are the angels of San Roque and San Isidro Labrador. San Roque’s companion angel holds in both hands, a plaque with a prayer against pestilence, while San Isidro’s holds a plow with both hands. Could this be the body of an Angel then—remember, it came with wooden wings!

 Of course, I entertained the possibility that this might be an altogether different saint—San Pedro Martir, perhaps, who looks similar to San Vicente. His attributes include a palm of martyrdom, a sword and a machete—but then, the santo head has no slit to put a machete in.

Regardless who this santo was, I thought It was worth restoring. In fact, I was confident I could personally restore it myself.

I began by repairing the missing parts of his feet with clay epoxy. I also enlarged the crevice for his head and repositioned the tiny wings.

From scrap embroidered vestment materialsI had saved from a past santo project, I fashioned a simple tunic with a belt.

As a final touch, I converted a round earring with fretwork into a halo. The results of this restoration are on this page.

He will, for the time being, be a San Vicente Ferrer to me. Maybe I’ll have a small wooden trumpet made, to hold in his right hand.

And maybe, I’ll see if I can coax him to hold a book. I may not have been able to solve the identity of this strange santo, but at least I managed to put him on the path to salvation!

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.