ART PHILIPPINES

Pre-Colonial Art in the Philippines

 Earliest people had created tools and artifacts
from locally available materials.
 Crudest forms of stone tools were excavated in
Batangas, Cagayan, the central Luzon area, Davao,
and Palawan.
 Created cultural objects
 Receptacles: earliest containers served as coffins
made out of tree barks and fibers woven into mats or
they were receptacles of food and other belongings to
accompany the dead on his journey to another world.
Pre-Colonial Art in the Philippines
 Jewelry
 shells, flowers, jade, beads of glass, gold
 Ancient sample of jewelry
 Pierced cone shell, presumably an earring, found in
one of the layers of the Duyong cave excavation in
Palawan.
 Gold beads were found in Guri Cave, 300-100
BC, in Marinduque and Batangas.
 Spaniards colonized Luzon in the 1570’s and
found out that the gold mines of Benguet and
Paracale were already in operation.
Pre-Colonial Art in the Philippines
 Pottery
 Clay pots were made
as early as 710 BC.
 Classification:
 According to shape
 Method of Decoration
 Type of design used
Pre-Colonial Art in the Philippines
 According to shape
 Shape refers to the description of the vessel’s body,
the form of its mouth, the thickness of its lips, or the
presence of ears, spouts and legs.
 Method of decoration
 Impressed method – done by pressing on the vessel’s
still wet surface a certain object like a rope, string, or
small piece of mat.
 Incised method – done by using a sharp object to
draw certain patterns on the vessel’s still wet body.
Pre-Colonial Art in the Philippines
 Designs
 Abstract designs
 Dots, straight lines, curved lines
 The “V” formation of two diagonal lines
 The “X” or crossing of two diagonal lines
 Representational
 Drawings of human objects
Manunggul jar
 Found by Victor Decalan and
Hans Kasten together with
Peace Corps volunteers from
the United States in March
1964.
 the Manunggul Jar (found in
Manunggul Cave) was used
as a burial jar.
 On top of the cover is a
depiction of a boat where
two people are aboard.
 The other one paddles the
boat to send the dead to
the "other side of life."
Sculpture
 associated with religion
 Sculpture of souls rowing a boat toward a
Philippine Hades as depicted on a
Manunggul jar.
 Effigies representing spirits constituted
most of the early Philippine
representational sculpture.
 Some of the statuaries were brought about
from other lands, copied from or inspired
by foreign models, dated between 12th and
14th century AD.
 Golden image – unearthed in Agusan
 Avalokiteshvara – a medallion found in
Batangas
 Bronze Lokesvara – Mactan Cebu
Architecture
 House
 Single room
constructions with walls
of bamboo and roofs of
palm leaves.
 Ground floor – storage
 Cooking and washing
were done in “batalan”
 3 different types of structure
(16th century)
 Bahay kubo
 Ifugao House
 Maranao House
 Architecture
 Bahay
Kubo
 Bamboo
and nipa –
most
common
materials
 Architecture
 Ifugao House
– constructed
in a manner
that assures
the Ifugaos
protection
from the low
temperature
and the rains.
 Architecture
 Maranao House
 Has boat house appearance primarily
suggested by the presence of the
Panolong, the prow-like end of the
beams that support the flooring of
the house.
Architecture (Spanish Times)
 Houses
 Spanish colonial houses –
resemble houses in Spain only in
its use of stone, brick and tiles.
 Ground floor: for storage and
garage for the carruaje and
carro
 Balustraded azotea
developed from the
“batalan”.
 Nipa hut in concept
Architecture
 Old House:
Vigan
Architecture
 Old House:
Vigan
Architecture
 Churches
 Many of the churches show the influence of the
baroque style in architecture.
 First churches were part of the mission
complexes which were also fortresses.
 Mission complex
 church which has an open-air space before its portals
called atrium
 convent
 belfry
Architecture
 Taal Basilica
(Basilica of
St. Martin)
Architecture

 Baclayon
Church
(Bohol)
Painting
 Escuela de Dibujo y
Pintura
 established in 1821 by
Sociedad Economica de
Amigos del Pais, a civic
conscious organization.
 First teacher: Damian
Domingo
 Secular subjects were
formally taught.
 Large portraits of
wealthy natives began
appearing in 1850
Portrait of the Quiason
Family - dela Rosa
19th century Filipino Artists who
became famous abroad

 Felix Ressureccion Hidalgo

 Juan Luna
 Went to Spain at the age of 20 and
enrolled at the Academia de San
Fernando in Madrid.
 In 1884, Spoliarium was awarded a gold
medal at the Exposicion National de
Bellas Artes.
Spoliarium (Juan Luna)