3. SPANISH COLONIAL PERIOD
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.
4.
5. 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 estampitas, and
through paintings on church walls.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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 19th century.
14.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19.
20. 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.
21.
22. 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.
23. 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.
24.
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. 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.
28. 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.
31. Damian Domingo
AKA Damian Gabor Domingo
• 1st Filipino to paint his face, the first self-portrait
in the Philippines
• Founder of the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura, the
first school of drawing in the Philippines (1821)
• "Father of Filipino Painting"
ALIAS
"The First Great Filipino Painter"
32. DATE OF BIRTH
1796
BIRTHPLACE
Tondo, Manila, Philippines
WIFE: Lucia Casas
CHILDREN: Celedonia, Severo, Anastacio, Feliciana,
Agapita, Mariano, Jose, and Nicolasa YEAR OF DEATH
1834
33. PERSONAL BACKGROUND
Don Damian's father was
Spanish and his mother a
Manileña from Tondo. At an
early age he already showed a
mastery of the brush.
34. CAREER
Domingo is known for being among the first to
start painting secular subjects, a major
departure from the typical religious paintings of
the previous era. It was the period of the rising
middle class, and his tipos del pais or paintings
of native Filipinos in their costumes were in
demand as decorative items among the
ilustrados as well as among the tourists and
foreign residents.
36. He was skilled in executing miniature paintings,
which were then in vogue as objects to be given to
lovers and friends. According to his great grandson
Alfonso Ongpin, customs of the day did not allow
formal visits and suitors had to be content with
glimpses of their sweethearts from the street.
Domingo amazed his clients with his ability to
capture a perfect likeness of the lady in question
after a few brief sightings of her at her window.
37. It is told that his miniature portrait of Lucia
Casas so captivated the lady's father, the
wealthy colonel Don Ambrocio Casas, that
he invited the painter into his house. A
romance developed followed by a marriage
that produced eight children, including
Celedonia, Severo, Anastacio, Feliciana,
Agapita, Mariano, Jose, and Nicolasa. Two
of them, Severo and Jose, would follow in
the footsteps of their father.
38. THE FIRST FORMAL PHILIPPINE ART
SCHOOL
Domingo became the painter of choice of
Manila's prominent class. He not only
developed genre painting but also portraiture.
His fame became so widespread that even
Governor-General Mariano Ricafort (1825-
1830) sat for him. Domingo realized the value
of formal art education, and moved his peers
and students to study art in a rigorous way
attuned to the Western world.
39.
40. DAMIAN DOMINGO
The students were taught how to draw still
life and the human form, the art of
perspective, painting in oil and aquarelle,
and the preparation of colors and surfaces.
Painters of that epoch painted not only on
canvas, but on wood and ivory, of copper,
iron, silver, and sometimes gold.
41. He established the Academia de Dibujo y
Pintura in 1821. Two years later another
school was opened by the Sociedad
Economica Filipina de Amigos del Pais. On
13 June 1826 both schools were fused
when Domingo was asked to teach at the
latter academy. In 1828 he was made the
director.
42. In his school he required that there be
no discrimination of the races. The
students were taught anatomy, still life
painting, perspective drawing, the
handling of oils and watercolors, and
the preparation of colors and painting
surfaces.
43. For his talent and civic work, Domingo
was given the honorary title of
lieutenant of the Spanish army. The
French writer Jean Mallat observed
that his miniatures displayed the mark
of great talent.
44. LEGACY
Domingo died on July 26, 1834 after a long and
progressive illness. The academy was officially
closed on May 16, 1834 due to lack of funds.
Of his known surviving works, most are
watercolors. Among his oil paintings are the
religious works The Apotheosis of St. Thomas
Aquinas, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, The
Chair of St. Peter in Rome, and The Holy Family.
45. In 2007 Ayala Museum mounted the first major
retrospective of the spectrum of his oeuvre,
including religious images from the Ongpin
Family collection, miniature portraits, and several
versions of his Philippine costume albums. The
exhibit was curated by a direct descendant of the
painter, Lisa Ongpin-Periquet, along with Luciano
Santiago and Deanna Ongpin-Recto.
46.
47. Damian Domingo continued to paint religious images.
He intended these for display in his personal shrine and
this exhibition marks the first time that the family, the
artist's descendants through the Alfonso Ongpin line,
have allowed their display in public. Fine details show
the artist's growing mastery of the miniaturismo style.
Domingo used a wide range of materials available to
artists like wood board, ivory, copper, iron, silver, and
gold.
57. DAMIAN DOMINGO
He died about 1834, before reaching the
age of 40. His death was a great loss not
only to art but to the Filipino movement
for racial equality that was to reach its
apogee later in that century. To his family
and motherland, he left a lasting legacy –
the greatness of the Filipinos in painting.
58. 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.
59. The works of painters like Simon Flores,
Antonio Malantic and Justiniano Asuncion
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.
64. 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
65.
66.
67.
68. 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.
