PROPERTY FROM THE PROFESSOR AMBETH R. OCAMPO COLLECTION

Provenance: Private collection of Don Felipe Hidalgo

Literature: Galang, Zoilo M. Encyclopedia of the Philippines: The Library of Philippine Literature, Art, and Science (Volume 4: Art). Manila: P. Vera & Sons Company, 1935. Black and white illustration on page 293. "The House of Hidalgo is a Great Art Museum, A Fortune is Invested in Oddities." Foto News, November 30, 1937. Captured in a black and white photograph of the second floor of Don Felipe Hidalgo's R. Hidalgo mansion. "Preliminary Sketches Show a Meticulous Artist." Foto News, February 15, 1939. Black and white illustration with artwork description

ABOUT THE WORK

Hidalgo's Head Study for Per Pacem et Libertatem: An Important Relic of an Important Work by Adrian Maranan - When the US flag had finally been "peacefully" hoisted over Manila after the formal end of the Philippine–American War in 1902, signifying a new era of yet another colonial rule in the Philippine archipelago, the American insular government needed an all-powerful medium to project its newfound supremacy manifested through the doctrine of "benevolent assimilation" to the islands. And what other means to convey this other than the all-important brush and paint, and of course, best handled by an all-powerful painter? In 1903, after the Americans had established the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands, the US commissioned Félix Resurrección Hidalgo for a sum of 10,000 pesos to paint a monumental work depicting the "promises and achievements" of peace and liberty under American colonial rule. The painting, titled Per Pacem et Libertatem, was completed in 1904, just in time for Hidalgo's participation at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, where he presented the said work along with 23 other pieces, including Oedipus y Antigone and El Violinista. The Fair was meant to showcase America's place as a key imperial power. Alfredo Roces notes in the monograph Félix Resurrección Hidalgo and the Generation of 1872 that Per Pacem et Libertatem "hinges on allegory," possessing a "thematic device of having a woman represent a nation [that] was popularized by Eugene Delacroix's painting, Liberty Leading the People, (1830)." "It became a conventional device used by painters of the time; Juan Luna's painting, Spain and the Philippines, (1887) being yet another example," continues Roces. The original Per Pacem et Libertatem would find its permanent home in the Marble Hall of the Ayuntamiento in Intramuros. It would, unfortunately, be one of the cultural casualties of the Battle of Manila in 1945. The work at hand is a head study of a woman with a bandaged head meant as an allegory of a wounded Philippines. In the original painting, the injured woman submits herself to America, the lady of peace and liberty that would bring the islands to progress, represented by another woman, an angel- like figure representing enlightenment and education. It is one of the surviving remnants of the now-lost masterpiece. This head study was originally in the fabled collection of Félix Resurrección's nephew, Don Felipe Hidalgo, who resided and housed his treasures in the family's ancestral house on the famed Quiapo street, renamed in his uncle's memory. The work at hand was also said to be one of Don Felipe’s most treasured in his collection. In Don Felipe's collection could be found his uncle's own replicas of Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho, the original of which bagged the silver medal at the 1884 Exposición General de Bellas Artes in Madrid, and La barca de Aqueronte, whose original was conferred the gold medal at the 1893 Exposición Internacional de Bellas Artes, also in Madrid. There was also Luna's large, colored sketch of his Boda Romana, now famous as the Hymen, oh Hyménée. In October 1958, the magazine Mobilways dedicated an entire issue focusing on the storied collection of Don Felipe Hidalgo, with biographical notes on Félix Resurrección and a reproduction of several of his major paintings. An article titled "R. Hidalgo," based on a biography of the artist written by the eminent Alfonso T. Ongpin, succinctly tells of the legend that was Don Felipe and his splendid trove. The article writes: "As R. Hidalgo street rounds the curb at its Plaza del Carmen end, there stands on the corner of the next street of Tanduay a massive old house, high and aloof. Its only concession to the present is its new coat of pastel blue and cream, otherwise, it looks as if it belongs more to R. Hidalgo Street, only left out by some unhappy chance. Indeed, it belongs there, for it is the ancestral home of R. Hidalgo himself. Here are found a treasury of some of Hidalgo's masterpieces, along with a veritable museum of ancient armor, sculptures, clocks, oriental idols, old Chinese vases, plates, and other bric-a-brac that tell of a well-remembered past. Its present owner and custodian is Don Felipe R. Hidalgo, a nephew of the painter, who recalls the incidents behind each of his collector's items, and above all, recalls Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo. He lights and re-lights his cigar and, with eyes agleam, takes pride in talking about his revered uncle." Another article ("Hidalgo Art Collection") from the same Mobilways issue notes that Don Felipe began collecting at the age of six and now possesses the "most varied" of all collections in the Philippines. It also wrote, "Don Felipe has about ten of his uncle's paintings and dozens of sketches, drawings, and embroideries." The article continues, "He would prefer to live with the old paintings of his uncle and his contemporary Luna, with his memories of an age gone by that are still alive among the vases, the carvings, the delicate China, the figurines, and the quaint little odds and ends in the dim and quiet of his home." A pre-war photograph published in the November 30, 1937 issue of Foto News Magazine shows that this head study was located on the second floor of the historic house, hanging on the wall alongside other Hidalgo and Luna portraits and surrounded by various important ephemera from China, Japan, and Europe. The head study for Per Pacem et Libertatem was also featured in the fourth volume of the authoritative pre-war Encyclopedia of the Philippines (The Library of Philippine Literature, Art, and Science), authored by Zoilo M. Galang, the pioneering Filipino writer in the English language who penned the first Filipino novel written in English, A Child of Sorrow (1921). This charming piece serves not only as a poignant reminder of a lost masterpiece and the "what ifs" and "could have beens" associated with its unfortunate destruction during the war. It is an indispensable memento of that once glorious era of old-world opulence in the not- so-distant past.