Provenance: An old Agustinian Church, Ilocos Norte Private Collection

ABOUT THE WORK

Perhaps one of the earliest examples of furniture during the Spanish colonial period (1571–1898) was the “mesa altar.” Requested as functional tables and storage units for church/ecclesiastical use during the earliest days of the “Conquista” by the Spanish friars and naval officers in collaboration with Chinese and Filipino craftsmen, it was directly inspired by the Chinese altar tables from the Ming dynasty. Although no physical evidence exists today, it was highly probable that the simpler Ming dynasty tables were brought by the entrenched Chinese trade to the islands, to show to their islander trading partners why they were buying tropical hardwood/lumber in bulk to bring back to the Chinese mainland, an activity first recorded during the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD) but most probably happening many centuries before that. It was also highly probable that the Chinese traders were teaching the islanders carpentry skills so they could bring finished products back home, which seemed to be the case in Batangas province where Chinese influence and Chinese–style furniture abounded. In any case, the mesa altar was soon followed by other storage units like the “baul” (chest) and the “vestuario,” (vestry drawers/large cabinet), as well as the “armario” (aparador). The inevitable presence of expert Chinese craftsmen and trained Filipino assistants soon allowed for more elaborate models, hence the more complex and intricate “dinemonyo” mesa altar and the ensuing fancier baul, vestuario, and aparador. These are all still extant four hundred years later at the San Agustin Church and Convent Museum. This genuine example of a “Dinemonyo” “mesa altar”/ altar table with grotesque masques, of narra and kamagong wood (Pterocarpus indicus and Diospyros discolor/Diospyros blancoi) from Ilocos Norte, has a “binandeja” framed top with receding moldings on the sides. The entire tabletop is supported by the four legs of the casing. There is a single drawer with an unusual ogee arch carved on the drawer front, a reference to Arabic and Spanish design motifs. Underneath the single drawer is a thick molding which mirrors that of the tabletop, and under the molding is a long, thick apron with undulating C–scroll cutwork. The sides of the casing are solid pieces of “narra” carved with a single double diamond shape (another reference to Arabic and Spanish design motifs) under which are thick aprons with the same undulating C–scroll cutwork; the back of the casing is also one solid piece of “narra” carved with two double diamond shapes (yet another reference to Arabic and Spanish design motifs), under which is a similar long and thick apron with the same undulating C–scroll cutwork, connected to the legs. As in front, so with the back. Supporting the four sides of the case are elegant albeit attenuated cabriole legs topped by grotesque masques (hence the diminutive, “dinemonyo”) terminating in ball–and–claw feet atop curved plinths. In an ode to Sinitic rigor, the four ball–and–claw feet sit on the intersections/connections to the molded stretchers which are executed in the complex “xinmianping” style, a discreet trademark manifested by all genuine 1600s–1700s “Dinemonyo” altar tables. Overall, despite the Chinese–Filipino craftsmanship and the austere and frugal Ilocano air (the smaller dimensions of the wood and the marked absence of design elements standard to a dinemonyo mesa altar), there is a distinct Arabic–Spanish “mudejar” character to this unusual “dinemonyo” mesa altar from Ilocos Norte. One of the earliest pieces of Filipino furniture was the “mesa altar” or altar table intended for the holy Christian–Roman Catholic images of a household. Ming dynasty altar tables were the inspiration for the earliest prototypes from the late 1500s–early 1600s. The massive altar tables with legs adorned with Oriental grotesque masques (derived from the Asian mother goddess “Kala”) and ball–and–claw feet all on stretchers, colloquially termed dinemonyo (“with a demon”), were developed sometime in the 1600s, when they first appeared in church inventories. The pinnacle of the “mesa altar” was reached in the mid-1700s with the “comoda de Batangas” or “Batangas Uno” altar table (according to Ramon N Villegas and Osmundo Esguerra), a spectacular hardwood conglomeration, still in the Sinitic tradition, of red “tindalo” wood and black “kamagong” wood with three to five drawers, delicate piercework flanges and apron, occasional inlays of “kamagong” wood and carabao bone, all supported on cabriole legs over stretchers. The elaborate Batangas altar table was succeeded by a plain version with cabriole legs on stretchers, some with serpentine drawer fronts, the “Batangas Dos.” However, both the “Batangas Uno” and the “Batangas Dos” types of altar tables were made well into the first half of the 1800s. Western European – Victorian tables became all the fashion during the second half of the 1800s and the Sinitic tradition ended there.