325. A Folksy Warehouse Find: SAN JOSE AND NINO JESUS

Oh, the things you find in a warehouse! Yes, this San Jose with his little Niño—carved from a single piece of wood—was found in a dusty warehouse of demolished house parts and old lumberyard materials. It was such in a sorry state—with paint peeling, base cracked, and features that are hardly recognizable.

But I thought the 15.5 inch santo looked promising underneath that layer of dust and grime. It had all the characteristics of a true primitive--carved with shallow features, painted with bright colors to cover up the stiffness of the figure. 

There are little details that added much to the appeal of this peace which I got next to nothing. The fact that it was totally fashioned from one piece of softwood wood, including the base, was remarkable, as the symmetry of the piece was almost perfect. Why, the silhouette looks almost like an awards trophy for some contest!

San Jose, himself, looks younger, what with his very sharp, pointed beard and straight black hair. His tunic features a collar while a bow knot is neatly tied high above his waist, as opposed to a simple cord. His robes are painted yellow (which has become grrenish with age) with chicken feet-like prints, typical of Visayan santos. The santo tapers down to the simple, squarish base, with corners lopped off.

Child Jesus on the other hand, looks like an afterthought, ramrod-straight in the arm of San Jose. It almost looks like standing, not seated in a cuddle.

All this San Jose needed was a thorough cleaning and a quick trip to a neighborhood painter to make it more presentable. A light coat of varnish to fix the paint was the final touch to this folksy warehouse San Jose and his little Niño—now fit to be displayed in my house!

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.

317. SAN NICOLAS DE TOLENTINO, A Folk Ensemble

The visionary and wonder worker San Nicolas de Tolentino (b. c. 1246/d. 10 Sep. 1305, canonized in 1446) played such an important part in the religious history of the Philippines.  The mission province of the Augustinian congregation was created in Madrid in November 1621.  When the last wave of missionaries arrived in the country in 1606—the Augustinian Recollects ---they also named their “provincia” after the good saint. The ‘Recoletos’ ministered in the uncharted regions of Zambales and Upper Pampanga

SAN NICOLAS 1. Height: 18"

Originally thought to be a San Antonio, this heft santo wears the trademark Augustinian cincture, which certainly identifies it as San Nicolas. The well-carved santo sits on an 8-sided ochovado base with traces of floral painting on the front panel. races of gilding on the hems and edges of the santo's habit.

For some two hundred years, the Philippines was a primary “misión viva” of the province, which made possible the opening of seminaries in the country. By the nineteenth century, the Recollects gained greater socio-religious significance in the country, and the conversion and evangelization of Negros was the zenith of their achievements.

It is no wonder that so many San Nicolas images were made in the country, thousands carved by untrained Filipino artisans, to be enshrined on humble home altars for veneration and adoration. Four different San Nicolas antique carvings from my collection are shown on this page, to illustrate the varied styles and visual interpretations of Filipino santeros of long ago.

SAN NICOLAS 2: Height: 17 1/2"

A very folksy santo with not much carving details. But the charm lies in its folksy character. Nonetheless, the overextended sleeves of the Augustinian habit are accurately captured in this santo.

His life story struck a chord with Filipinos who prayed for him to work miracles—in the same way that the vegetarian saint, who, upon being served a roasted partridge on a plate, brought the bird back to life by making the sign of the cross. This gave rise to his popular iconography that shed on the rim, shows him in his black Augustinian habit, holding a plate with a bird perched on the rim, and a cross in his other hand.

SAN NICOLAS 3, Height: 14"

This slimmed-down version of San Nicolas is handsomely carved and stands on an ochivado base. He has a downcast gaze, and his rigid pose is broken by his one foot that steps forward, Traces of gilt, including the outline of a star on his chest, which is one of his attribute--in reference to the guiding star that led him to Tolentino.

The ‘saniculas” cookie tradition that remains to be popular in Pampanga can be traced to an episode in the saint’s life when San Nicolas became emaciated after a long fast. The Virgin Mary and San Agustin came to him in a vision, and they told him to eat a cross-marked bread. He did so and he recovered. He then distributed these ‘St. Nicholas’ bread among the sick, who were miraculously cured of their illness. Instead of crosses, the ‘saniculas’ is imprinted with the figure of the saint.

In Banton, Romblon, a church built in the 16^th century is dedicated to him, and his feast day during the annual Biniray festival. In Pampanga, a 440-year-old Augustinian church, was founded in his honor in 1575. The massive, heritage church houses a second-class relic of San Nicolas that is venerated after the Tuesday mass.

SAN NICOLAS 4: Height: 11"

This is the smallest among the Santos Nicolas in my possession, and also one of my first santos. This small folk santo has a long, narrow head that sits on a small, short body. It bears traces of paint, and is remarkably complete, save for a missing hand and a plate. Bought in Baguio in the early 80s, it comes from Ilocos.

A San Nicolas de Tolentino Parish Church, built in 1584, can also be found in Cebu City, one of the oldest in the country. San Nicolas is also recognized as the titular patron of the cathedral of Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija—the site of Gen. Antonio Luna’s assassination. He is also the ‘pintakasi’ of Lambunao and Guimbal (Iloilo), Surigao City, Capas (Tarlac), Buli and Cupang (Muntinlupa), San Nicolas (Ilocos Norte) and La Huerta (Parañaque).

His patronage also extends to animals and babies, mariners, sailors and watermen (he saved 9 passengers on a ship that was about to go down), dying people and  holy souls.

SOURCE:
Nicholas of Tolentino:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_of_Tolentino

289. COLLECTING ANTIQUE PHILIPPINE SANTOS THE HARD WAY

THE SANTO SEEKERS, Mario Mercado and Lorna Montilla.

Condensed from the original article: "COLLECTING FILIPINIANA THE HARD WAY" ,  first published in Chronicle, 1962.
By C.V. Pedroche

City-bred duo tramped backward towns in Panay to find wealth of artifacts and reliquaries

 Two young people, Mario Mercado and Lorna Montilla, are doing something few others have done: they are collecting old religious images, relics and other Filipiniana the hard way. And they are doing it for love.

With them it is not the collector’s cold-blooded mania for owning and storing precious odds and ends; it is with deep sense of conviction that somehow they will find again the Filipino soul in these bukbok-eaten, noseless, armless, and–in some instances–headless relics of our country’s past. These two dedicated enthusiasts are not swivel-chair collectors.

Having very little money, they cannot afford to wait for precious art items to come their way through profit-conscious agents. They have decided that the cheaper–through more dangerous–way to get their art pieces is to go out and look for them right at the source.

 To Mario who is barely twenty-three this is the right way–the only way. He is hunter, explorer, boxer, writer, painter, amateur archaeologist, photographer, mountain-climber all rolled into one masculine, nervous personality. Lorna is wiry. And she is game. City-bred, she has always pined for the wide open spaces. And she has found in Mario a tough companion who knows his way about both in city and mountain fastnesses, in caves and dark-room. She asks for no quarters. And Mario gives none. Both young, they have no patience with restraint. Nor convention.

Once they had agreed on their itinerary they set out to fulfill it. The first place they decided to explore was Panay where Lorna comes from. After only a few weeks’ stay in the mountain regions of this province they returned to civilization with several crates filled with the most astounding assortment of ancient religious images, shards, plates, vases, jars, daggers, skulls, and yellowed manuscripts. 

SAN VICENTE FERRER, TWO MARIAS AND ONE STO. NINO.

Mario says they have barely scratched the surface. They intend to return soon and continue digging. Lorna walked hundreds of kilometers with Mario and laughingly admits it was no picnic. She dug as fast as furiously as did Mario and the hired hands. She sweated it out, knowing that beneath the rolling knolls lie a pile of priceless artifacts which might give a clue to the history of our country–or at least of that part of our country. Hopping from one hill to another limbered up Lorna’s city legs. But, she said, it was worth all the pounds she lost.

 A Religious Colony in Old Jaro 

 Jaro’s ruins betray the death of a vast religious colony, in the words of Mario. Its foundations are intact but its walls are deadly gray, moss-covered and weed-choked. Paintings inside its churches have somehow survived, murals have been retouched, betraying the inexpert hands of native artisans.


Attempts at sculptures abound in these ancient houses of God –but these, too, reveal the awkward groping for expression of unschooled artists.The two next took in Iloilo, Molo, Tigbauan and Oton which, Mario says, has been almost completely devastated by the convulsions of the earth. 

But, he adds, there was something this violence could not kill –the beautiful palm-lined beaches and the sweet tender coconut meat on which they often had to slake their thirst and hunger.

Primitive Sculptured Statuettes 
Collecting the religious images proved to be less strenuous but as interesting as digging for artifacts. The people are deeply religious, Mario says, and they keep in their houses–even in the humblest huts–wooden images carved hundreds of years ago by their forebears. Soon the the temporary headquarters where our explorers kept their finds began to fill up with all kinds of wooden images–sculptures that show attempts at reverence and form, though utterly awkward beyond description, sometimes comic in an openly honest though unconsciously satirical way.

 The religiosity of these people can be best judged by the number of images they keep in their huts. There were crucifixes and extra-long, extra-short, extra-massive Christs with the bewildered eyes of dolls, or with Mona Lisa smiles, with blood oozing out in geometric pattern on their sides, and many such interesting features peculiar to primitive works of art.

 The statuettes are so old they ooze bukbok from tiny holes on their heads and bodies, so frail that they break into pieces with the slightest fall. Since they look so ugly and mutilated, the town priests have refused to allow them to be carried around during processions–or to bless them during fiestas. So the people have kept them in dark corners of their homes–where the two collectors found them. 

STO. NINO, SAN NICOLAS, SAN RAMON, SAN ANTONIO

How they secured these relics is quite another story. Sometimes the people just flatly refused to part with them however tempting the offer that had been made from them. In most instances they accepted new mass-produced plaster images in exchange for their priceless ones.

 After a while, though, people began to suspect the two. Stories were circulated about how they were spies or that the images they gave away were loaded with time-bombs or some such secret weapons meant to exterminate them. An old woman warned the people of Tigbauan who sold their statuettes to the strangers or exchanged them for plaster ones, that their departed ancestors would haunt them for thus desecrating these heirlooms by giving them away indiscriminately.

 Meanwhile the two daring young explorers are getting restless once again. Already the city dust is getting under their skin and their limbs are beginning to get flabby with inaction. In a few weeks, they assure us, however, they will be out again exploring in parts unknown. What they will bring back this time will be quite another story.

246. Rare Folk Santo Tableau: THE MOCKING OF JESUS

BURLANDOSE DE JESUS. A folk santo grouping in a primitive
urna, depicting the mocking of Jesus by Roman soldiers.
Pamintuan Mansion, Angeles City, Pampanga.

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,

In my place condemned He stood;

Sealed my pardon with His blood.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Religious tableaus depicting anything from Biblical scenes (the Nativity, the Crucifixion)  to various saintly groupings (e.g. Our Lady of Carmel, St. James Fighting the Moors, Salvacion) are familiar sights to antique dealers and santo collectors. Folk representations of the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) commonly abound, often encased in a colorful folk altar. The same goes true for Calvario tableaus  that show Jesus on the cross, surrounded by Mary, Magdalene and St. John.

However, in the restored ancestral Pamintuan residence of Angeles City can be found a very rare and seldom seen folk tableau, representing the Mocking of Jesus Christ. This event, which Jesus had predicted, happened several times--after his trial and before his crucifixion according to the gospels of the New Testament.

The mocking of Christ took place thrice: immediately following his trial by the Sanhedrin, after his condemnation by Pilate, and when he was on the cross. The first instance was done by chief priests, temple guards and other elders.

The second instance occurred after his appearance before Pilate, where, upon his condemnation, was  was flogged and mocked by Roman soldiers. They clothed him with a purple or scarlet robe. crowned with thorns and made to hold a staff as his scepter. This wooden tableau seems to depict Jesus' second mocking by the Pilate's Roman centurions who knelt before him and said , "Hail, King of the Jews".

Curiously, the seated blank-faced Jesus figure is clean-shaven. Could this figure represent Pilate? Or was it just a way to differentiate Jesus from his bearded and moustachioed antagonists? A wire on top of his head that once held a halo--indicates with certainty that this is indeed, Jesus. One bemoustached official is either in the act of handing him his reed scepter or about to beat him up with a staff.

Still another is seen pointing his finger up. Two or three centurions stand at attention around Jesus, dressed in their pointed hats, breeches and boots. All the figures--no more than 7 inches high-- are carved from softwood in the naif style, with their separately-carved limbs wired to their bodies. Their faces are painted and they are dressed in fabric trimmed with lace and gold thread.

The ensemble is housed in a spectacularly carved, glass fronted  urna with 4 Solomonic columns, cutwork side flanges, and a roof with simulated rococo carvings. It stands on carved feet that are typical of Ilocos folk altars.

Christians see Jesus' suffering is redemptive, hence, they see the mockery that Jesus went through as being borne and endured on their behalf. Capturing this moment in a carved devotional piece must have been a challenge to the anonymous santero who wrought this exuberantly-crafted masterpiece. Which explains why it remains the first and only Mocking of Christ tableau I have seen thus far,

The rare Mocking of Jesus folk tableau can be viewed at the Pamintuan Mansion on Sto. Entierro St., located at the heritage district of Angeles City. The ancestral residence has been converted into a Museum of Social History. Opens daily 8:00 am-5 pm, except Mondays. Entrance is free.