Spanish Colonial

Period
(1521-1898)
 While the South remained
resistant to Spanish colonization,
the colonizers gained inroads in the
Central part of the islands whose
inhabitants we now refer to as
“Lowland Christians”.
The art forms from that
period are referred to
stylistically and culturally as
religious art, lowland
Christian art, or folk art.
To carry out the project of colonization and
Christianization, the natives were forcibly resettled in
towns structured according to the plaza complex.
This relocating became a means of organizing and
gaining control of the native populace.
Designed according to the prescriptions of the
Spanish crown, the Church established its
importance in people's lives through its imposing
scale and overall visual appeal.
they were characterized by grandeur, drama, and
elaborate details that purposely appealed to the
emotions.
San Agustin Church in Manila
 Morong Church in Rizal
 Paoay Church in llocos Norte
 Sto. Tomas de Villanueva Church in Miag-ao, lloilo.
The Baroque style used contrast, movement,
exuberant detail, deep color, grandeur and surprise
to achieve a sense of awe. The style began at the
start of the 17th century in Rome, then spread
rapidly to France, northern Italy, Spain and Portugal,
then to Austria, southern Germany and Russia.
San Agustin
Church in Manila
Morong
Church in Rizal
Sto. Tomas de Villanueva
Church in Miag-ao, lloilo
Images of saints and interpretations of
biblical narratives were considered
essential to worship. Under the strict
watch and patronage of the church,
images were produced through
painting, sculpting, and engraving.
Example:
a painting of Nuestra Señora del
Rosario in Bohol, the image of
which was said to be inspired from
Kuanyin, the deity of mercy in East
Asian Buddhism.
Kuanyin
The Greek and Roman classical influence
can be seen in the proportion employed as
well as the formality of expression while
the trace of the Baroque is evident in the
expressive and emotional characteristics of
the santo.
The retablo integrates architecture and
sculpture.
The Via Crucis is an important
inclusion in colonial churches which
are presented either as a series of 14
paintings or relief sculptures depicting
Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.
With the coming of the Spaniards, who
brought western musical instruments like
the pipe organ, the violin, the guitar, and
the piano, Philippine musical forms also
took on a very European flavor with new
rhythms, melodies and musical forms, that
Filipinos proceeded to adopt them and
make their own.
 Outside of Manila, a musical form
based on the Catholic faith would
emerge in the pasyon or pabasa as
it is sometimes called -or the
biblical narration of Christ's passion
chanted in an improvised melody.
 Among the lowland Christian
communities of Pampanga,
llocos, Bicol, and lloilo, secular
music forms such as the awit
and the corrido soon flourished.
At this time, the kundiman and the
balitao, balitao-sentimental love songs
and lullabies also evolved. During the
latter half of the 19th century when
revolutionary sentiments began to
develop, the kundiman which usually
spoke of resignation and fatalism,
became a vehicle for resistance.
Among Mangyans who inhabit the island
province of Mindoro, bamboo poles are cut into
smaller nodes and are etched with Babayin
script used to compose short poems that tell of
courtship and other emotional concerns. In the
town of Ticao, located in southern province of
Leyte, a huge stone was discovered that
contained Baybayin writing believed to be an
invocation for a safe journey by sea.
Local theater forms would develop earlier than
literary fiction. The shamanistic rituals, dances, and
chants of pre-colonial Philippines which wére
probably the earliest forms of theater; were
replaced by the pomp and pageantry of religious
processions that were introduced by the Spanish
colonizers, complete with highly embellished
carrozas containing religious tableaus of Catholic
The zarzuela or sarsuwela was an
operetta which features singing and
dancing interspersed with prose
dialogue which allowed the story to be
carried out in song.
Severino Reyes and Hermogenes
llagan, who wrote sarsuwelas in
Tagalog were the most distinguished
playwrights of their day with Honorata
'Atang‘ dela Rama (National Artist for
theatre and Music, awarded 1987) as
their most celebrated leading actress.
 The first senakulo or
Passion play was written
in 1704 by Gaspar
Aquino de Belen.
The komedya depicts the conflict between the muslims and
Christians.
two main types of the komedya:
1. komedya de santo or religious komedya. It centers on the life
of Christ or of any saint
The actors move in a stylized way, have extravagant costumes
and elaborately choreographed war scenes.
2. The moro-moro is a type of secular komedya. The word 'moro
is derived from the Spanish word for Moor or the North African
Arabs who ruled parts of Spain from the eighth to the 15th
century.
Visual Arts
Painting served an instructive function
through visual interpretation of biblical
texts central to Catholic devotion.
Heaven, Earth, and Hell (1850) – mural by
Jose Dans in Paete Church Laguna
The reprographic art of printmaking
was introduced in the Philippines as
early as the 16 century. Applying the
th

technique of xylography or woodcut

printing, Doctrina Christiana was
printed in 1593 in Spanish and in
tagalog by Dominician priests.
In 1734, The Jesuit priest Fr. Pedro
Murillo Velarde collaborated with
homegrown talents, the artist
Francisco Suarez and engraver Nicolas
de la Cruz Bagay produced Carta
Hydrographica y Chorographica de las
Yslas Filipinas. First Scientific map of
the Philippines
In 1884, the expatriated Juan Luna and
Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo won medals
in the Madrid Exposition. Luna won
gold for Spoliarium while Hidalgo
garnered a silver medal for Virgenes
christianas expuestas al populacho.
The Spoliarium (often
misspelled Spolarium) is a painting by 
Filipino painter Juan Luna. Luna, working
on canvas, spent eight months completing
the painting which depicts dying gladiators.
The painting was submitted by Luna to
the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in
1884 in Madrid, where it garnered the first
gold medal.
Virgenes christianas expuestas al populacho it portrays two
scantily clothed Christian female slaves being mocked by a group
of boorish Roman male onlookers. One of the women is posed
seated naked at the foreground of the painting with her "head
bowed in misery”. The semi-nude women have been stripped
not only of their garments but also of their dignity. Created in
the academic style of Europe, the unfortunate women in the
artwork are considered by some indigenous Filipinos as virgins
"being led out, stolen from, and ridiculed". The women are
young virgins cornered by a mob of "sexually hungry" Roman
men. One of the men has his hand over one semi-naked female
whose eyes are "looking up to heaven" asking and begging for
"help that never comes".
THANK YOU!