PROPERTY FROM A VERY DISTINGUISHED COLLECTOR

Provenance: Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

The head has gentle Oriental female features --- high arched eyebrows, heavily–lidded almond eyes, long straight nose, rosebud lips, prominent chin, two neck rings --- and is attached to the body with a bamboo peg. There are protruding pegs to secure the wig, a detachable pate also for holding the wig down, and there is a small iron bar at the back of the head to support an aureola or halo of gold or silver. The Buddha–like ears with provisions for earrings are integral to the head; in earlier pieces, the ears were carved separately. The hands are attached to the arms in the distinct eighteenth century manner (and earlier) wherein an iron ring connects the hand end to the arm reinforced by bamboo dowels on both sides, allowing the hand to wave/pivot freely (this system was replaced in the nineteenth century by bigger bamboo dowels protruding from the hand ends sliding into corresponding holes in the arms; the hands became stationary). Observing the features of the statuette’s mannequin body with its mid–calf tunic and “contrapposto” stance --- the unusually generous bosom, the uniquely Rubenesque rear, one comes to the conclusion that it is probably the young fourteen year–old “La Inmaculada Concepcion de la Virgen Maria” but equally that of a popular (miraculous) female patronal saint during the Spanish period: Santa Maria Magdalena penitente, Santa Marta discipula de Jesus, Santa Veronica discipula de Jesus, Santa Maria Cleofe cunada de la Virgen Maria, Santa Maria Jacobe madre de apostol Santiago menor, Santa Maria Salome esposa de Zebedeo–madre de los apostoles Santiago y Juan, Santa Lucia virgen y martir, Santa Filomena virgen y martir, by AUGUSTO MARCELINO REYES GONZALEZ III Santa Agueda, virgen y martir, Santa Cecilia, virgen y martir, Santa Barbara virgen y martir, Santa Ursula virgen y martir, Santa Monica madre de San Agustin, Santa Escolastica hermana de San Benedicto, Santa Clara hermana de San Francisco de Asis, Santa Teresa de Avila Doctora de la Iglesia, Santa Catalina de Siena Doctora de la Iglesia, Santa Rosa de Lima, and others. Out of deference to the BVM Blessed Virgin Mary as “La Reina del Cielo” (The Queen of Heaven) as well as adherence to the Renaissance style, bigger “de vestir” (dressed) images of the Blessed Virgin Mary were usually of the “de bastidor” mannequin type: there was no bosom, only a flat chest; no rear midsection, but the top of a farthingale; no carved legs and feet, only a vertical framework of bars on a wide oblong base. Two of the most venerated Marian images in the country from the Spanish period are of this paradigm --- “Nuestra Senora de la Paz y Buen Viaje” in Antipolo and “Nuestra Senora del Santisimo Rosario” (“La Naval de Manila”) in Quezon city, originally from Intramuros. However, “Nuestra Senora del Rosario de Manaoag”/Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag is a “de tallado” fully– carved and polychromed image of molave hardwood from the 1600s under the embroidered vestments. The popularly venerated images of “Nuestra Senora de Penafrancia” in Naga, “Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe” in Cebu, and “Nuestra Senora de Guia” in Ermita, are all “de tallado” fully–carved images under their embroidered vestments. In fact, “Nuestra Senora de Guia” looks like an Asian carving of a serene Buddhist deity.