Provenance: Workshop of Isabelo Tampinco, Manila Don Maximo Sison Viola Heirs of Maximo Viola

ABOUT THE WORK

Isabelo Tampinco y Lacandola, acknowledged to be one of the most outstanding sculptors of his time, garnered many awards and prizes in local and international exhibitions in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Madrid, and Barcelona. 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. However, 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, when Art Noveau became fashionable, he created a uniquely Filipino style by incorporating native flora and fauna designs in his calado or pierced transoms. His sinuous openwork and whiplash outlines in woodcarving abounded with the anahaw, areca palm, gabi or taro leaves, and bamboo. It came to a point that any frame or piece furniture decorated with these was instantly labeled as “made by Tampinco”. On the other hand, Máximo Sison Viola of San Miguel, Bulacan was studying medicine in the University of Barcelona, when he met Jose Rizal and became his best friend in Europe. They both became involved in the Propaganda Movement and, when Viola learned that Rizal was having difficulty in publishing the ‘Noli Me Tangere’ due to the delay of his allowance, Viola sought Rizal and offered to lend him the money needed to have the book published. When Rizal finally received his allowance from Manila, the P1,000 (P666,666 today) sent by his brother, Paciano, not only enabled him to repay Viola, but also invited him on a 2-month tour across Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland. Soon after, Viola returned to the Philippines to practice his profession as a doctor. In his later years he also indulged in his hobby of making furniture from kamagong and was so skilled in the craft, that he garnered an award in an exposition in Manila in 1920. The similarity in the design motifs of this armchair with the half-tester bed and settee that were auctioned at Leon last June and December 2017, respectively, indicates that they were made to be companion pieces, the former being part of a small sala set that was meant to be used in the sitting room of the bedroom. The armchair stands on 4 feet carved in the shape of an inverted and truncated trunk of an areca or bonga palm emanating from a quadrant at each corner carved with a section of an anahaw leaf. The seat frame is edged with a cymatium molding and has an apron carved in front and at the sides with a serrated frieze of joined, upended triangles incised with diamond-shaped depressions that give an impression of stylized anahaw leaves. A boss is carved below the junction of each triangle, while 3 semicircular appendages equidistantly one attached to the bottom of the front apron are carved with an anahaw leaf. The seat is caned in piece. On either side of the armchair are realistically carved bamboo arms resting on an arm support consisting of a short, truncated areca palm with a quadrant support on the inner angle carved with part of an anahaw leaf. The S-shaped arm, carved like a bamboo trunk, curves forward and tapers as it curves upwards to connect to the upright back stiles. The stiles, carved in the shape of an attenuated areca palm, has a crownshaft terminating in a stylized ionic capital consisting of a small anahaw leaf on a thorny stem at the center flanked by an ionic scroll. Between the back stiles is a wide solid narra plank flanked by stylized pilasters with molded vertical edges and a capital in the form of an inverted anahaw leaf. The background of the panel, carved with horizontal lines that give the impression of window persianas, is overlaid with a shield-shaped reserve carved with an inverted clump of traveler’s palm leaves emanating from an anahaw leaf. An entablature above the posts and backrest is carved with a small anahaw leaf with a thorny stalk on the block above the pilasters and a frieze of a coconut frond, a banana leaf, and bamboo twigs tied at the center with a ribbon, both on an entirely stippled ground. The cymatium molding above the corona is topped with a beveled edge. This is surmounted by a wide crest consisting of a large spray of roses realistically carved in the round and topped by an acroterion superimposed with an anahaw leaf. Symmetrically arranged on either side are realistically carved jungle ferns, coconut fronds, and banana leaves. -Martin I. Tinio, Jr.