Provenance: Private Collection, Makati City

ABOUT THE WORK

Isabelo Tampinco y Lacandola, a student at the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura, Manila’s art academy, studied sculpture under Agustin Saez and Lorenzo Rocha. Hailed as one of the most outstanding sculptors of his time, he was admired by Jose Rizal, who was his classmate in a modeling class at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. He was principally known as a laborista, a carver of ornament, because of the doors, altars, ceilings and other decorations he made for the Manila Cathedral and the churches of Sto. Domingo and San Ignacio in Intramuros. He also did decorative carvings for private homes, like transoms, picture frames and even furniture. Later, he made statues of saints and angels in wood, plaster of Paris, concrete and marble. At the turn-of-the-20th century, he created a uniquely Filipino style, when he incorporated native flora and fauna designs in his calado or pierced transoms. When Art Nouveau became fashionable, his works abounded with native motifs like the anahaw, areca palm, gabi or taro leaves, and bamboo. It came to a point that any frame or furniture decorated with these was instantly labeled as by ‘Tampinco’. This marble statue is one of the few pieces in marble executed by Isabelo Tampinco. It was originally meant to decorate the tomb of a rich person and is an allegorical piece. The composition consists of a broken column to which a floral wreath is attached by means of a wide ribbon. The former is a Masonic symbol and was usually used as a monument to a person whose life was cut short, while the wreath is a tribute to his memory. A winged youth with fantastic drapery flowing between his lower limbs has his arms raised towards his left cheek as if in prayer. -Martin I. Tinio, Jr.