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The Roberto Villanueva Lady of the Rosary An Industrialist’s Venerated Icon This exceptionally bigger depiction of “Nuestra Senora del Rosario”/Our Lady of the Rosary has both the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus with time –mellowed ivory faces and hands and carved bodies of polychromed “baticuling” wood, a softwood amazingly resistant to white ants/termites. The Virgin and the Child have Sinitic features and the faces have Oriental airs; the Virgin’s face in particular has a peaceful, serene mien akin to the Chinese goddess Guanyin. The hair of the Virgin and the Child are carved in an early “binihon” style (a colloquial term by antique agents meaning “thin noodle–style”). The overall style of the vestments --- long mantle/cape, doublet/tight bodice, bell sleeves, gown fastened in front --- is Spanish Renaissance in character and there is the trademark stylized “suksok” of the cape at the back (a forced fold resulting in pleats in a garment, seen occasionally in the art of the Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbaran [1598–1664], a frequent inspiration of the legendary Spanish–Basque couturier Cristobal Balenciaga [1895–1972]; the “suksok” is a trademark characteristic of Philippine eighteenth century images of the Virgin Mary, but not so much of the earlier seventeenth century ones). The image is from the eighteenth century (1700s) and its overall character, including the nineteenth century “ex votos” 80% solid silver appliquees (offered mementos of cures and other favors granted), situates it as having come from Laguna province, southeast of Manila. It has been suggested that the reason why the silver appliquees are not complete was because they were being donated one by one and the offerings ended when the image was removed from public veneration. The general style and iconography of the Villanueva image shares similarities with the famously opulent image of “Nuestra Senora de la Soterrana de Nieva” in the collection of former First Lady Imelda Romualdez–Marcos --- a small image of the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus with ivory faces and hands clad in a farthingale dress of piercework 18 karat gold vestments wearing similar exquisitely worked crowns and aureoles --- initially venerated at the Binondo church, originally the property of the legendary Don Antonio Maria Tuason who established its confraternity in Manila in 1781 after the British Invasion of 1762–64. Tuason was a very successful and rich Sangley trader who assisted the Spanish against the British invaders with his resources and numerous mercenaries during the two–year invasion; he was greatly rewarded with huge land grants by the Spanish Crown for his loyalty and was the first ennobled Filipino to join the ranks of the Spanish “hidalguia” aristocracy. The term “Theotokos” (Greek: “Mother of God”) is the depiction of the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Latin equivalent is “Dei Genitrix.” “Theotokos” was initially appropriated with gravitas by Filipino scholars and researchers to describe the antique Philippine images of the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus. The Greek term has been accepted and widely adopted by Filipino antique aficionados. The original image of “Nuestra Senora de la Soterrana de la Nieva” (Our Lady of the Subterranean, titled such as she was found in an underground cave in the late 1300s, most likely hidden and buried during the 800 years of the Moorish period in Spain) was venerated at the 14th century church of Santa Maria Real de Nieva near Segovia northwest of Madrid, on the way to Valladolid; the original image was burned in a fire during the turn of the twentieth century. “Nieva” (as in the town of Santa Maria Real de Nieva) in the NS de la Soterrana title was inadvertently confused with “Nuestra Senora de las Nieves” (Our Lady of the Snows), another 14th century image of the Virgin Mary venerated in the Church of Santa Cruz de la Palma, La Palma island in the Spanish Canary Islands off northwestern Africa. “Nuestra Senora de las Nieves” is an ancient Marian title from the Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome --- also known as “Santa Maria delle Nevi” (Italian) derived from the Latin “Sancta Maria ad Nives” (Our Lady of the Snows). The late, great playwright and antique dealer Floy Quintos (Florencio Louis de la Cruz Quintos, o 1961 – + 2024) occasionally spoke wistfully of a time when the Ermita antique shops were teeming with really rare treasures that one only had to shoot the breeze through them and they would yield truly wonderful specimens. He was referring to a singular, spectacular, polychrome “La Inmaculada Concepcion” image from Bohol in the collection of intellectual and heritage advocate Susan Calo–Medina, which she found one afternoon during the late 1970s in a serendipitous jaunt through the area. This “Theotokos” (“Mother of God”) as “Nuestra Senora del Rosario”/Our Lady of the Rosary statue collected earlier by Roberto Villanueva is comparable in rarity and would have also been one of Quintos’ examples. As always, the times have changed. Yes, Floy was right in his nostalgia: the 1930s–1970s were a golden time to acquire Filipino antiques as Victorian attitudes and fashions (including Art Nouveau) were rapidly in transition to Art Deco, and then to Art Moderne, and they were coming out of primary sources like the 17th, 18th, and 19th century churches and the 19th century “bahay–na–bato” of the erstwhile “principalias” and “ilustrados,” where they were no longer regarded as fashionable, useful, nor relevant. Serious collectors today concede that it is quite difficult to come across truly exceptional specimens, although they may possess the requisite bottomless funds for acquisition. All the best antiques seem to already be in Philippine government agencies (National Museum, BSP Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Museum, Intramuros Administration, NHCP National Historical Commission of the Philippines, NCCA National Commission for Culture and the Arts, et al), the top religious and educational institutions (San Agustin Church & Convent Museum, University of Santo Tomas Museum, Ateneo de Manila University – Arete, De La Salle University Dasmarinas – Museo De La Salle) and the top private collections (Que, Yao Campos Jr, Agustines, Laya, Gutierrez, Chan, Trenas, Pardo de Tavera Loinaz, Aboitiz–Ortiz, et al). Not to mention the innumerable artistic casualties of World War II and the Holocaust that was the Liberation of Manila in February 1945. Of course, that is only partially true. So much more are emerging from postwar 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s houses (where they were transferred from prewar and 19th century dwellings). That is why Philippine auction houses are doing very good business. (Augusto Marcelino Reyes Gonzalez III) Acknowledgments: (Romeo Allanigue; “The Diarist” by Thelma Sioson–