BRIEF HISTORY OF PHILIPPINE ARTS ● Pangalay (Sulu Archipelago) - mimetic of the movement

of seabirds
Timeline ● Banog-banog (Mandayas’kinabua of Mindanao) -
Pre – Conquest: 890 BC – 225 AD movement of hawk
Islamic Colonial (Islams of Mindanao): 13th Century – ● Man-manok (Bagobos of Mindanao) - movements of
Present predatory birds
Spanish Colonial (Spaniards): 1521 – 1898 ● Talip dance (Ifugaos) - movements of wild fowls
American Colonial (American Colonizers): 1898 – 1940 ● Kadaliwas dance (T’bolis) - comedic movements of
Post War Republic (Japanese Colonizers): 1946 – 1969 monkeys
70s (Marcos Regime): 1970 ●Tinikling (Tagalog folk dance) - evocative of the
Contemporary: 2018 (Present Time) movements of the crane

PRE-CONQUEST Carving
● art before the coming of the first colonizers. ● Bulul – Cordilleras
● referred as “indigenous” to emphasize the idea of our ● Hagabi – Ifugaos
ancestors.
● Art was known as the expression of an individual but ● Santos – Laguna
not categorized into different kinds of forms. and Pampanga
● Okir - Southern
Examples: Rituals (planting, harvesting, rites of passage, Philippines
funerary, ceremonies, weddings), Hunting, and etc.
● Sarimanok
Rituals ● Panolong
● Cañao or Kanyaw (Cordillera Autonomous Region) – ● Sunduk
pagan religious feast
● Kashawing (Lake Lanao in Mindanao) – ensure Pottery
abundance in rice planting and harvesting Anthropomorphic Jars
● Every Thirteenth Moon (Tagbanwa, Palawan) – ritual food ● Manunggul Jar (890 –710 BC) – burial
and a divine gift from which the ritual wine is fermented jar
● Metal Age (5 BC–225 AD)
● Palayok
● Tapayan
● Banga

Hunting
● pre-colonial Filipinos hunted food and game that were Pagbuburnay in Vigan
shared among the members of the community where they - Art of making clay pots
told stories about the hunt - valued part of the creative industry Ilokanos have

Music
● Zithers Weaving
● Pipers aside from body ornaments, weaving is also essential for
● Drums productivity of natives like baskets and mat weaving.
● Kudyapi
● Agong Purpose:
- reverence for spirits and
Native Dance and Counterparts nature

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- criteria for the beautiful Jewelry
- societies’ sociopolitical structures - make the wearer more attractive &
pleasing to the gods
Made from: - T’boli - wear brass chains, bells, and
fibers - cotton, abaca, and pineapple leaves colorful beads
pigments - clay, roots, and leaves.
Metalworks
● Textile weaving – Malong, Pis Siyabit, Langkit - Lotoans or betel nut boxes (made of
Body Ornamentation bronze)
- Present in
Maranao of Lanao
del Sur

Lost Was or Cire Perdue

- metal casting, moulds filled with
liquefied metal, hardens

Other Vessels
● Product Weaving – Head Sling Baskets, Bubo, Tepo Mats - brass kendi (vessel for pouring
liquids) and the gadur, status
symbols or as heirloom pieces

Body Ornamentation
Boxer Codex
- Manuscript, sometimes known as the Manila
Manuscript
- Written on 1590
- contains illustrations of ethnic groups in the Philippines
at the time of their initial contact with the Spaniards
- has representations of various ethnolinguistic groups,
where the Upper-Class Tagalog wears gold
jewelry, and the Visayans wear tattoo
ISLAMIC COLONIAL
Islam (Southern Philippines)
- culturally dominant and strong
- gained significant grounding in Sulu as early as the 13th
century
History of Islam and Development
● The arrival of Sayyid Abbubakar of Arabia in the 15th
Century caused changes to significant events
● Sayyid Abbubakar married Princess Piramisuli, the
daughter of Rajah Baguinda.
● Following the death of Rajah Baguinda, Sayyid succeeded
the throne and established the Sultanate of Sulu.
● Abbubakar was known for introducing holy texts from the
book of Quran, building religious schools (madarasa), which
facilitated the teaching of arabic writing in the 16th century

● Islam became the driving force that enables natives to

resist centuries of Spanish colonization and was embraced
as a way of life by the people of Mindanao (Tausug,
Maranao, Maguindanao, Yakan, Samal, Badjao, and some
Tattoos areas of Palawan)
- mean of protection from evil spirits
- badge of maturity and bravery
- provinces of Kalinga, Kankanay, Ibaloy, and Ifugao Influence on Arts
practiced tattooing ● Filipino Muslims believes that they belong to an
“ummah,” a community of believers
● Doctrine of tawhid - unity of god

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● impermanence of nature & incomprehensible greatness ● Torogan - royal house of the Maranao
of the divine being.
● Aside from the mythical sarimanok;
Say: He is Allah the one and only (Surah 1Khlas 112:1) the burraq, a horse with the head of a
woman is the Prophet - ascension to
Two Aspects of Reality (Prof. Abrahan Sakili) heaven
- object perceived by the ordinary sense
- sense of nothingness - a space or a void empty SPANISH COLONIAL PERIOD
● Though the South have been resistant, the Spanish
Which evoke that God is above and beyond all things. Colonizers gained control in the Central part, which they
classified them as “Lowland Christians.”;

Art Influence in Architecture ● Art forms, as they demanded, are under the strict rule of
● Goal is to negate materiality in the interior of the church and the colonial stat,e
mosques
● By Religious orders they dispatched to convert all the
● Has elaborate patterning which reliefs to draw the natives to Catholicism
attention away from concrete object like human forms and
nature “toward the contemplation of the divine.” ● Art forms are stylistically and culturally which are
classified under: Religious art, Lowland Christian art, Folk
● Philippine Muslims organize space in architecture with art.
parts of the mosque like the mihrab or niche & Qibla wall ● To carry out their projects like, the plaza complex, they
relocated the natives and let them build town centers,
● It is toward the west - may it be in Sultan Kudarat or in municipio(s), and cruches
Quiapo, Manila
● Designed according to prescriptions of the Spanish crown,
establishments must imposes scale and overall visual
● Having a dome appeal like:
- reflects how the order of the - Cruciform churches with a shape of the Latin cross,
universe is imagined - Hispanic churches, the baroque style is predominantly
- central feature employed to appeal emotions
- “all levels of cosmic existence“
- octagonal base - the spirit ● Baroque are implied with churches like:
- four-sided main base - San Agustin Church in Manila
- earth or material world - Morong Chucch in Rizal
- Paoay Church in Ilocos Norte
● Ka’bah - Sto. Tomas de Villanueva Church
- black shrine is said built by in Miag-ao, Iloilo.
the Prophet Muhammad
- reference point for the ● European inspired but with local interventions suits its
Qiblah native sensibilities and adjustment to local environmental
- direction faced where a conditions
Muslim prays
● façade of Miag-ao Church - surrounded by reliefs or
● Area for water supply - function of relleves (tropical motifs)
ablution, or cleansing before one enters
– Mosque • Palm fronds and papaya trees
• adobe, limestone, or brick
● Islamic forms would project, grow, or have an upward • thick buttresses or wing-like projections
orientation - for heaven and to veer from the “material • It is called the Colonial Baroque or Philippine or Tropical
earth.” Baroque

● Panolong - carved protrusion akin to a wing attached to Spanish Application in Different Aspects:
the torogan, ● Architecture
● Sculpture and Ornamentation

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● Music
● Writing System
● Theater
● Dance -
● Paintings - There
● Printing System

Architecture
● Saints and interpretations are the essentials into worship

● As the process of engraving, painting and sculpting they

are highly supervised in accordance to imposing scale and
overall visual appeal.

● The friars brought the Western models for our local artists
to copy which are most likely made from either ivory or
wood and portrays classical and baroque models
● In the 17th century, Chinese artisans are engaged in
making icons or saints or santos, building churches and
houses, making furniture which later on spread throughout
Cebu, Batangas, Manila, and Ilocos.
were only 3 vowels in the traditional version.
- There were no spaces between words. So to separate
sentences, two lines (ll) were used like periods.
- symbols for D and R were the same and NG sound
had a different symbol for itself

● It drew upon Chinese features and techniques like in

Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Bohol which Kuanyin, the
deity of mercy in East Asian Buddhism

(other topics are not included)

BAYBAYIN
- Also known as alibata
- Philippine’s writing system before the Spaniards came
- Filipinos are currently based on Tagalog Baybayin
script.
- SCRIPTS FROM OTHER REGIONS: Badlit – Visayans,
Kulitan – Kapampangans, Tagbanwa, Hanuno’s, and
Buhid – Indigenous tribes

2 Ways to Write
There are two ways to write Baybayin, the traditional pre-
Hispanic way and the modernized variety which has been
modified a little bit by the Spanish friars.

Pre-Hispanic
- Baybayin is classified as an Abugida (only syllables that
are composed of a consonant and a vowel can be
written)

- Add kudlit (small mark) above to make an E/I sound,

and add kudlit below to make an O/U sound.
- This was the traditional system of writing words for
ancient Filipinos, they did not write stand alone
consonants.

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- the script acted as a mnemonic device for reading and
was not that efficient to capture the different sounds
in the Philippine languages

Characters

Important Notes for Pre-Hispanic version:

1. One symbol is one syllable.
2. Consonants at the end of syllables were not
written.
3. No spaces between words.
4. Use a double line as a period.
5. DA and RA are the same character.
6. NG has a specific character.

Modified Version

- Spanish friars added consonants and spaces

- A cross was used below the symbol to negate
the vowel sound

Modernized Script

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