PROPERTY FROM A VERY IMPORTANT COLLECTOR

Provenance: Bicol (from an old OFM Ordo Fratrum Minorum/Franciscan church)

ABOUT THE WORK

This large altar image of “La Inmaculada Concepcion de la Virgen Maria” is from the Bicol region as manifested by the sheer heft of the hardwood and the robust roundness of the carving. The face has refined Sinitic female features --- high arched eyebrows, almond eyes heavily–lidded, long straight nose, rosebud lips, prominent chin, a neck ring. The image is dressed in the modest “Hebrea” style (Hebrew style: a simple dress with the cloak draped across the front, meeting at the waist) in contrast to the Spanish baroque court dress; the dress is painted red with parcel–gilt “estofado” decoration while the “manto” or cloak is painted blue. It has a “contrapposto” posture (one foot forward, body weight on the other foot) with the right foot forward, both shoeclad feet peek out from under the dress. The image stands on an upturned half–globe of scrolled Ming dynasty–style clouds with a crescent moon peeking out on both sides, all on top of what is an ostensible “ochovado” (eight–sided) base. As the image was probably located in the uppermost tier of the altar “retablo” (as most images of “La Inmaculada Concepcion”), best appreciated from a distance, there was no need to carve the back scrupulously, although there is a rudimentary “suksok” (the “manto” or cloak tucked in at the back midsection), a distinguishing feature of eighteenth century Filipino Marian images, be they of ivory or hardwood, small or large. As it is of the Bicol type, it must have originated from one of the old OFM Ordo Fratrum Minorum/Franciscan churches in the peninsula. The image comes from one of the country’s top art and antique collections begun in 1981. The Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception states that: “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.” The BVM Blessed Virgin Mary has been honored as absolutely pure and sinless in Roman Catholicism since its establishment. However, the idea of Mary as The Immaculate Conception --- meaning that Mary was conceived by her mother Anne without the stain of original sin inherited from Adam and Eve, in preparation for her becoming the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God; it also meant that she lived her whole life in the service of God entirely without sin --- had a complex evolution. The Franciscans supported it while the Dominicans opposed it; the scholar Duns Scotus (1264–1308) supported it. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) and Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) opposed it. The counter– Reformation Council of Trent (1545– 1563) exempted the BVM Blessed Virgin Mary from the universality of original sin. In 1571, the Roman Breviary established the feast day of The Immaculate Conception on 08 December. In 1830, twenty–four years before the declaration of the dogma, the Daughter of Charity/Vincentian novice Catherine Laboure saw the BVM Blessed Virgin Mary at a chapel in Paris three times. Mary requested that a medal be struck with her image and the words: “O Marie, concue sans peche, priez pour nous qui avons recours a vou.”/“O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” The line “conceived without sin” explicitly implied The Immaculate Conception. Many years later, the Roman Catholic Church deemed the Rue de Bac, Paris apparitions as authentic. Pope Pius IX issued the encyclical “Ubi primum” in 1849 requesting the bishops of the church for their views on whether the doctrine should be defined as dogma; ninety percent of the responding bishops supported it. The dogma of The Immaculate Conception was finally decreed by Pope Pius IX in the papal bull “Ineffabilis Deus” in 1854. In 1858, four years after the declaration of the dogma, a young, innocent, and ignorant girl named Bernadette Soubirous saw the BVM Blessed Virgin Mary in her hometown of Lourdes in southwestern France. At the grotto of Massabielle, Mary identified herself: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” The simple Bernadette did not understand the terminology, a factor in her favor as the clerics played the devil’s advocates in successive attempts to verify the apparitions. Many years later, the Roman Catholic Church deemed the Lourdes apparitions as authentic.