A BRIEF

HISTORY OF
PHILIPPINE
ART
 I. Pre-conquest
th
II. Islamic Colonial (13 century to the
present)
III. Spanish Colonial Period (1521-1898)
V. American Colonial Period (1898-1940)
to the Postwar REPUBLIC (1946-1969)
V. 70s to Contemporary
Pre-conquest
ART
Historical terms – “pre-conquest”
Stylistic terms – “indigenous” to emphasize the
idea that our ancestors have been making art
even before colonization.
Cultural terms – “pre-colonial” as a term to use
for the general way of life before colonization.
 Prior to colonization, art of the ancient
Filipinos were woven into the fabric of
everyday life.
Everyday expressions were all integrated
within rituals that marked significant
moments in a community’s life.
✔ planting
✔ harvesting
✔ rites of passage
✔ funerary ceremonies
✔ weddings
Creative forms:
✔pottery Embody
✔weaving * aesthetic,
✔ carving * technological
✔ metalwork * ritual values
✔jewelry
❑ Our ancestors were hunter gatherers.
❑ the pre-colonial Filipino hunted food
and game that were shared among
members of a community in a
gathering where they told stories about
the hunt.
❑ in this simple activity evolved ritual,
music, theatre, and even literature.
❑When they told a stories about the hunt,
this form of story telling marked the
beginnings of the literature.
❑ When they imitated the movements of the
animals that they hunted, this marked the
early beginnings of theatre or play acting.
❑ when they learned to add drum beating
and attach a rhythm to their movements,
they had given birth to music and dance.
Rituals as the earliest forms of
theatre are still alive in the various
regions:
Canao or Kanyaw – Cordillera officiated by a
shaman or mumbaki
- Involves animal sacrifice, where entrails are
read through a process of divination that is
performed either for healing, to announce the
birth of the child, or a coming of age, during
wakes, weddings and burial ceremonies.
 The country’s indigenous culture through the
existence of ethnic musical instruments such as:
✔ pipes
✔ flutes Various string instruments like:
✔ zithers * kudyapi – a three stringed
guitar
✔ drums * kulintang – an array of
bossed gongs
* gansa or flat gong,
* bamboo percussion
instruments
* agong - a large bossed gong
Native Dance
Imitated the
movements of animals,
humans, and elements
from nature.
Examples:
Pangalay (Sulu) – movement of seabirds
Man-manok (Bagobos, Mindanao) –movements of
predatory birds
Talip dance (Ifugao) – used in courtship movements
of wild fowls
Inamong (Matigsalugs) and kadaliwas (T’bolis) –
comedic movements of monkeys
Tinikling – popular tagalog folk dance often
showcased tourists
 Carving
Bulul (Cordillera) – regarded as granary guard
that plays an important role in rituals.
Hagabi (Ifugao) – wooden bench that marks
the socioeconomic status of the owner.
Santos or sculpture of saints (Laguna and
Pampanga)
Carving
Manunggul Jar – Discovered At
Manunggul Cave, Lipuun Point, Palawan.
– Neolithic period (890-710 BC)
It is a secondary burial
vessel, where buried and
exhumed bones are
placed.
Manunggul Jar – Discovered At
Manunggul Cave, Lipuun Point, Palawan.
– Neolithic period (890-710 BC)
It is a secondary burial
vessel, where buried and
exhumed bones are
placed.
 Weaving
Textiles are not only functional, they also
impart knowledge about people’s belief
systems: The reverence for spirits and nature,
criteria for the beautiful, and their societies’
sociopollitical structures.
 Weaving
In traditional weaving the fibers are gathered
from plants like:
✔ cotton
✔Abaca
✔ pineapple leaves
While the pigments are extracted from clay,
roots, and leaves of plants
Backstrap
Loom – is
used to
weave
designs
that hold
special
meaning for
a particular
cultural
group.
Tepo Mat –
Tawi-Tawi
 Ovaloid
baskets –
Itbayat,
Batanes
Ornamentation
th
In the 16 Century , they illustrated manuscript
called the Boxer Codex feature representations
of various ethnolinguistic groups.
Upper class Tagalog couple – gold jewelry
Visayans – fully covered in tattoo, corroborating
early accounts that reffered to the Visayans as
“Islas de los Pintados”
Jewelry
❑ The T’boli are known to wear
brass chains, bells, and
colourful beads to complete
their elaborate ensemble.
Metal work
❑ As with Jewelry, painstaking attention to
detail is manifested in metalwork such as the
lotoans or betel nut boxes of various shapes,
made a brass or bronze produced chiefly by
the Maranao of Lanao Del Sur.
Maranao’s Betel Nut Box
The design is achieved through a
special technique of metal casting
called the lost wax or cire perdue
process which involves the use of
moulds filled with liquefied metal
that eventually hardens. The removal
of the mold reveals the designs in
relief.
Other vessels that employ the
same techniques are the brass
kendi and the gadur, which
are used in ceremonies and
are cherished as status
symbols or heirloom pieces.