Provenance: Mexico, Pampanga Saturnino Hizon – Cornelia Sison Simplicia Sison Hizon Fernando Hizon Sandico-Maria Corazon Rosario Ditta Rosario Sandico-Ong

ABOUT THE WORK

Considered among the first families of Pampanga are the Hizons, Chinese mestizos who originally came from Tambobong, now known as Malabon. In the early years of the 19th century, with goods from Manila loaded on cascos, they sailed up the Rio Grande de Pampanga to Mexico, the first capital of that province located along a bend (masiku in Kapampangan) of that river. Eventually, two Hizon brothers married women from that town, settled there and became very prosperous and well landed. Since they had multiple marriages and were very prolific, they ended up as the progenitors of the most elite families of Bacolor, San Fernando and Angeles. The last two, former barrios of Mexico. This aparador with a kamagong carcass stands on four squat cabriole legs with sturdy shoulders ending in graceful feet. Narra apron boards with a convex outline are in front and at the sides. The front apron, in the shape of an inverted truncated pediment, is bordered with line-inlay and decorated at the center with an oval-shaped stellar inlay of kamagong and lanite. Each front leg, attached diagonally to the front corners of the cabinet, supports a three-quarter disc on which rests a thin engaged colonette on a turned, vase-shaped base with a finely reeded shaft topped with an urn-shaped capital. Between the colonettes are two doors with pulls, and a keyhole shield of silver. Each door consists of a single, kamagong-framed narra plank carved with an oblong panel with quadrant corners. The panels are line-inlaid with an inner border of lanite strips on either side of a kamagong one. The same, but larger, design is inlaid on the narra sides of the cabinet. Above the doors is a kamagong taenia, line-inlaid in front and at the sides with two horizontal strips of lanite on either side of a row of discs. At each corner above it is narrow kamagong plinth, line-inlaid on their exposed sides with an oblong design in lanite and topped with a turned, urn-shaped finial. Narrow horizontal narra panels between the plinths in front and at the sides are inlaid with a border of lanite enclosing a carved and pierced design of interlocking circles. Because of its similarity to the logo of the Olympic Games, the term ‘Olympic’ is now used to describe it nowadays. -Martin I. Tinio, Jr