PROPERTY FROM THE DOÑA NENE QUIMSON COLLECTION

Provenance: :
Ex Coll: Ma Angeles del Rosario Tuason–Quimson
Jose Maria Zaragoza Tuason
Demetrio Tuason y de la Paz
Enrique Ma Barretto y de Ycaza

ABOUT THE WORK

THE LOST GODDESS OF ESCOLTA TREASURE FROM THE TUASON TROVE by AUGUSTO MARCELINO REYES GONZALEZ III Caryatids, by definition, are female figures which function as columns that support entablatures in classical Greek architecture. This beautiful, detailed female figure is wearing a “peplos,” a Doric belted tunic and, unlike the six caryatids at the Erechtheion in Athens, Greece, has well–articulated hands and feet. Rendered in molave hardwood, one of several caryatids and atlantes which once supported the uppermost entablature of the three–storey Edificio Tuason (originally Edificio Barretto de Ycaza) on #09 Escolta, they were most probably created by professional sculptors and not by carpenters. Since the architect Felix Roxas y Arroyo practiced frequent collaborations with artists in his projects, those fine architectural figures must have been created by a talented sculptor/sculptors affiliated with the “Gremio de Escultores” (Guild of Sculptors), which at that time included Romualdo de Jesus, Isabelo Lacandola Tampinco, Felino Abdon, Bonifacio Arevalo, Ciriaco Arevalo, Anselmo Espiritu, Manuel Flores, Vicente Francisco, Jose Guzman, Crispulo Hocson, Ramon Martinez, Graciano Nepomuceno, Marcelino Nepomuceno, et al. Edificio Barretto de Ycaza (Barretto de Ycaza building) on #09 Escolta was sold by Enrique Ma Barretto de Ycaza y Esteban to Demetrio Tuason y de la Paz in the 1890s. It was designed and built by Felix Roxas y Arroyo in 1870. It was renamed Edificio Tuason (Tuason building). The magnificent three– storey building was a casualty of the Great Escolta Fire of 31 December 1917 but somehow, many of the hardwood Atlantes and Caryatids survived practically unscathed and were taken home by the Tuasons as souvenirs of the burnt building. Enrique Ma Barretto de Ycaza y Esteban descended from an extremely affluent Indo–Portuguese business dynasty and was known to the Spanish authorities in Manila as “El Principe Negro” because of his immense wealth and great style. He lived like a European prince with pomp and ceremony in his palatial homes. His main life achievement was the establishment of “La Fabrica de Cerveza de San Miguel” along with his partner Pedro Pablo Roxas on 29 September 1890, feast day of Saint Michael the Archangel. Unfortunately however, Barretto the bon vivant was an inveterate gambler with several other vices to boot. There was a pressing financial reason for the sale of the Edificio Barretto de Ycaza on the Escolta to Demetrio Tuason. He gradually lost the immense Barretto de Ycaza family fortune he had inherited. Demetrio Tuason y de la Paz was an important businessman of his time. He was a respected figure and his business circle included the great Spanish mestizo and Chinese mestizo entrepreneurs of Manila at the turn of the century --- his uncle Gonzalo Tuason y Patino, Pedro Pablo Roxas y de Castro, Jacobo Zóbel y Zangroniz, Mauro Prieto y Gorricho, Ariston Bautista y Lintingco, Maximino Paterno Molo de San Agustin, Vicente Ruperto Sy–Quia y Romero, Mariano Velasco Chuachengco, Telesforo Antonio Chuidian y Chuaquico, Mariano Limjap y Barrera, Enrique Yuchengco, Guillermo Cu– Unjieng, et al. As a son of an extremely affluent father and an enterprising mother, Demetrio (“Queso”) inherited vast agricultural lands in Diliman (Quezon city), Marikina, and Santa Mesa and many commercial and residential real estate properties in Binondo, Tondo, Santa Cruz, Escolta, and Quiapo. An excellent businessman ahead of his time, Demetrio took the profits from those lands and invested them in new businesses and corporations. Demetrio managed to enlarge his Tuason inheritance. It was a business model his children emulated. Demetrio Tuason y de la Paz (“Queso”) was the third son of Jose Severo Tuason y Patino, fourth Lord of the Tuason “mayorazgo,” and the Marikina native Teresa de la Paz y de los Santos. Natividad Zaragoza y Roxas (“Naty”) was a daughter of the Spanish mestizo Jose Zaragoza y Aranquizna, publisher of “La Ilustracion Filipina” magazine and bon vivant, and highly successful businesswoman Rosa Roxas y Arce (“Chata”), who accumulated a fortune in Manila real estate holdings. Rosa Roxas y Arce was a second cousin to the heiress sisters Carmen de Ayala y Roxas de Roxas (Sra de Pedro Pablo Roxas), Trinidad de Ayala y Roxas de Zóbel, and Pedro Pablo Roxas y de Castro. Her father Mariano Leon Roxas y Arroyo was a first cousin to the siblings Margarita Roxas y de Ubaldo de Ayala, Bonifacio Roxas y de Ubaldo, and Mariano Roxas y de Ubaldo. Coincidentally, Mariano Leon Roxas y Arroyo was a brother of Felix Roxas y Arroyo, architect of the Edificio Tuason on the Escolta. Rosa’s grandfather Antonio Roxas y de Ureta (married Lucina Arroyo) was a brother of Domingo Roxas y de Ureta (married Maria Saturnina de Ubaldo), father of the siblings Margarita, Bonifacio, and Mariano Roxas y de Ubaldo. Demetrio Tuason y de la Paz (“Queso”) married Natividad Zaragoza y Roxas (“Naty”) and had seven children: Jose Maria Zaragoza Tuason (“Pindong”) married Magdalena Locsin del Rosario (“Nening”), Carmen (“Carmencita”) married Alejandro Roces Legarda (“Mandu”), Nicasio Zaragoza Tuason married Pilar Lim (“Pilaring”), Celso Zaragoza Tuason married Rosario dos Remedios (“Chiching”), Lourdes Zaragoza Tuason (“Lulu”) married (1) Eduardo Matute (“Danding”) (2) Ignacio Lacson Arroyo, Severo Antonio Zaragoza Tuason (“Toto”) married Paz Jurado Acuna (“Ning”), Teresa Zaragoza Tuason (“Teresing”) married Emilio Gonzalez LaO’ (“Bololo”). FELIX ROXAS Y ARROYO by AUGUSTO MARCELINO REYES GONZALEZ III Felix Roxas y Arroyo was the first Europe–trained Filipino architect. He was a son of the Spanish and Chinese mestizos Antonio Roxas y de Ureta and Lucina Arroyo of Binondo (his father was a brother of Domingo Roxas y de Ureta, ancestor of the Roxas–de Ayala–Zóbel–Soriano clan). At a time when it was not yet easy and fashionable for rich young men to study in European universities (before 1869 and the opening of the Suez Canal), Roxas bravely went to the United Kingdom and studied architecture. He studied the great buildings of London --- Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, (newly–constructed) The Houses of Parliament /Westminster Palace --- and, through well–connected British friends, visited the great English city and country houses --- Chiswick House, Devonshire House, Spencer House, Apsley House in London, and Knole, Petworth House, Blenheim Palace, Syon House, Osterley Park House, Strawberry Hill, (newly–constructed) Highclere Castle outside the capital. He traveled all over the United Kingdom and all over the Continent, studying the great public buildings, palaces, and houses, making sketches and accurate plans which served him in good stead once back in Las Islas Filipinas. He worked for a few years as an architect in the United Kingdom and in India. Back in Manila in 1858, famous as an “arquitecto” who had studied and worked in Europe and armed with impressive social connections by virtue of his Roxas family, he designed and built government buildings, churches and convents, and private residences in the span of a long career. He was appointed by the Spanish government as Municipal Architect of Manila from 1877–80. Apart from the Spanish friars and government officials who were the builders before him, Roxas was the first Filipino architect to introduce a variety of European architectural styles, and more importantly, scientific, precise scale and proportions, to Filipino buildings. It would be a full 30 years after his return before the colonial government would establish the “Escuela Practica y Professional de Artes Oficios de Manila” in 1890 which was a school for the training of “maestros de obras” or builders, not architects. Felix Roxas Sr set the professional stage for his Roxas nephews who were sent to Europe for tertiary studies and became “ilustrado” lawyers, doctors, architects, and engineers from the 1870s onwards. Roxas Sr designed and built several buildings, churches, and residences in Manila and environs but extensive documentation, including his personal archive, were all destroyed in February 1945 during World War II. He was known to have rebuilt the Ayuntamiento de Manila after the 1863 earthquake. He was also known to have rebuilt the Santo Domingo church in Intramuros in the Neo–Gothic style after the 1863 earthquake. He also built the San Ignacio church in Intramuros, although he did not live to see its completion in 1899. He most probably built several commercial buildings along the Escolta, among them the Edificio Barretto de Ycaza which became the Edificio Tuason, and most probably, Edificio Roxas which was redesigned as the Regina building in 1930 (upon its acquisition for PHP 1 million pesos --- on 10 monthly PHP 100,000.00 installments --- by the Pampanga sugar baron Jose Leoncio Hizon de Leon Sr from the Zóbel–Roxas family as represented by Joseph R McMicking, husband of Mercedes Roxas Zóbel). San Ignacio church in Intramuros, during its existence (1899 – 1945), was the most elegant church of its time, as well as the most fashionable. It was not a very large church, but its Neoclassical architecture by Felix Roxas and supremely elegant carved Neo–Renaissance decorations of native hardwoods by Isabelo Tampinco and Agustin Saez were wonders to behold and equal to the most beautiful churches in Rome, Paris, London, and Madrid. As it was the Jesuit church with a mostly American clergy, and as the Ateneo Municipal was the school of choice for the sons of rich Filipinos, its Sunday congregation was the most select in the city. The families of leading Spanish mestizo and Chinese mestizo industrialists, the rich families of Taft avenue, Vito Cruz, Malate, Dewey boulevard, Ermita, San Miguel de Tanduay, R Hidalgo street, Pampanga, Iloilo, and Negros sugar barons, all came to attend Sunday holy mass at the Iglesia de San Ignacio not only to fulfill their Sunday obligations but also to see and be seen by their social peers. On Sunday mornings, Arzobispo street and adjoining streets in Intramuros were crammed with the big American and European cars of San Ignacio’s fashionable churchgoers. Among Felix Roxas’ prestigious residential projects, the houses of his Roxas first cousins Pedro Pablo Roxas – Carmen de Ayala and of Jacobo Zóbel – Trinidad de Ayala on Calle General Solano in San Miguel and of Rafael Enriquez and of Mariano Zamora – Martina Paterno on Calle San Sebastian in that barrio were justly famous for their architecture and interior decoration. In the early 1900s, the American Thomasite teacher Maria Morilla Norton visited the Pedro Pablo Roxas – Carmen de Ayala residence on Calle General Solano and the Rafael Enriquez residence along Calle San Sebastian and waxed rhapsodic about their splendid architecture and refined interior decoration in her monograph “Studies in Philippine Architecture.” Norton described the Pedro Pablo Roxas – Carmen de Ayala residence with its pair of inwardly curving stairs at the façade and the enfilade of salons inside. The Roxas – de Ayala residence was distinguished by that pair of inwardly curving stone stairs at its semicircular façade. The large home with its manicured gardens was reminiscent of a French country villa during the Second Empire of Napoleon III (1852–70). It was consistently described by several accounts as “a very elegant home.” Given the cosmopolitan sensibilities of the extremely affluent Roxas and de Ayala families, the house with its enfilade of salons was most probably furnished in the Spanish taste, as well as the French. It even had a private chapel which was used for the wedding of their daughter Margarita Roxas y de Ayala to the Spanish engineer Eduardo Soriano y Sanz in the 1890s. Norton described the Rafael Enriquez residence as stately with its many Classical Greek Ionic columns of 8 diameters high in its various halls The Enriquez residence was originally distinguished by a deep balcony that spanned the length of its façade, in a style best described as “Island Spanish Colonial.” One could only imagine how pleasant it was to sit in that balcony and enjoy the breezes and the passing sights on the street below. However, by the early 1900s, that balcony had been walled over; probably a concession to the need for more interior space. Sadly, the distinct open character of the house had been irretrievably altered. Maria Morilla Norton declared that the Pedro Pablo Roxas – Carmen de Ayala and Rafael Enriquez residences were the most elegant she had seen in the country. A postwar visit to the Mariano Zamora – Martina Paterno residence on #917 Calle San Sebastian/#968 R Hidalgo street, was an experience in elegance. One passed the large wooden doors to a “zaguan” with a high ceiling and a floor of large “piedra china” blocks. Both sides of the “zaguan” had big rooms used for any purpose --- offices, storerooms, staff quarters, even spare bedrooms for distant relatives. One proceeded right to go up the first three marble steps to a “descanso” also in marble, before finally ascending a “pasa senorita” staircase with an impressive, thick, molded wooden banister and thick turned balusters. On the left of the staircase was a large painting by Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo in a gilded frame. One emerged to the “caida,” a large entrance hall with golden mean proportions and floors of 45.72 cm/18” inch wide “narra” wood planks. It was furnished with Chinese and European furniture and decorations, with a sprinkling of Filipino. On the caida wall facing the sala was another large painting in a gilded frame, this time by Juan Luna y Novicio. One turned left passing through double doors to a large “sala” which also served as a “salon de baile” (ballroom/dance hall) during big parties. The hall also had perfect golden mean proportions. The walls were hung with smaller paintings by Luna, Hidalgo, and their contemporaries in gilded frames. The “sala” was eccentrically furnished with exotic Syrian mother–of–pearl inlaid furniture and French gilded mirrors and Boulle–style lacquered commodes which the Zamora–Paterno family had purchased on their travels. On both sides of the hall were pairs of double doors which led to commodious “cuartos” bedrooms. The bedroom furnishings were mostly by Ah Tay, the famous Binondo cabinetmaker. Towards the far end, facing R Hidalgo street, was a gallery perfect for catching the afternoon breezes. One left the “sala” and passed through the “caida” to emerge to the house’s most stunning and unexpected architectural features --- two successive interior courtyards/gardens open to the sky, the first surrounded by four bedrooms, and the second which led to the “comedor” dining room with a classic black–and–white tiled floor. It was a wonderful sight to wake up to in the morning in the 1800s. The comedor also had golden mean proportions and was furnished with a “sola pieza” dining table and Neo–Renaissance style dining chairs with cartouches and griffins on their crests. Off the dining room was the large “cocina” kitchen, which concluded suitably with a pair of stone service staircases to a courtyard which led to the “caballeriza” horse stables and the back garden filled with fruit trees and vegetable plantings, which finally ended by an “estero” which at that time still had clear water. The entire house was a showcase of Felix Roxas Sr’s cosmopolitan sensibilities --- of his years in Europe and India --- adapted to Philippine conditions. It was a very beautiful house and certainly one of Manila’s finest residences from the 1800s. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Felix Roxas y Fernandez Salvador Zaragoza Araneta Augusto Beda Arnedo Gonzalez Maria Isabel Tuason Gonzales Paul Campos Maria Victoria Madrigal Vazquez _______________ Lisa Guerrero Nakpil Isidra Reyes