WALA LANG

In the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas art collection is a busy farm scene. It is rice planting time ca. 1880. A man and his carabao are harrowing a muddy *pitak* and others are getting seedlings ready. People are approaching, led by a man carrying a guitar, music and rhythm needed as much to relieve tedium in the back-breaking task of planting rice as to ensure coordination among the planters as they move backward. In his hurry, someone has slipped and has fallen flat on a pilapil. He could have been in a rush because the *hacendera*, Doña Dominga de Santa Ana, has arrived. The setting is the Laguna de Bay shore at Angono, Rizal, by a crossroads linking Angono and Binañgonan, where nipa huts shelter under trees and behind bamboo fences. On the water a *remolcador* (tugboat) is towing three *barcazas* (barges or freight boats in this case) loaded with stone quarried from nearby hills.

MAGTANIM AY HINDI BIRO The hacendera checking out her *kasamá*.

The action is captured in the painting *Vista Parcial del Pueblo de Angono y Laguna de Bae (Morong)* by Juan Senson (1846-1927) that was exhibited in Manila’s 1895 Exposición Regional de Filipinas together with works of the well-known Fabian de la Rosa, Teodoro Buenaventura, and Jose Marìa Asuncion. Senson and his contemporary Pedro Piñon (1850-1925) are forgotten pioneers of the Angono School that counts among its members visual artists from the late National Artist Carlos “Botong” Francisco and Jose “Pitok” Blanco to today’s Nemesio Miranda Jr. and Wire Tuason. Angono’s art history is linked with the Hacienda de Angono and the Catholic Church. The hacienda was large, about 3,000 hectares spread over today’s towns of Taytay, Angono and Binañgonan, bounded by Antipolo and Laguna de Bay. The first hacienda owners are said to be the Rajahs of Caintâ and their descendants. They would have paid for the construction of a small chapel, a *visita* linked with the church of Pasig. The *visita* was a small chapel by the Casa Hacienda in a place called Biga at the foot of the hills leading up to Antipolo. It would have contained the first art works in the area. Ancient Filipinos carved and paid homage to anitos and when Spanish missionaries brought Christianity, carvers switched to saintly images for church and home veneration. The former would have been close to life size images for church retablos and the latter smaller images for home altars. Processional images would have been as large as the church images, owned or in the care of leading families. By the mid-18th century, a church had been built in a more populous area away from the Casa Hacienda. A 1782 inventory of the contents of the then extant parish church lists images of San Clemente, Papa y Martir (the patron saint), and San Isidro Labrador and pictures (probably paintings on wood or metal sheet) of Nstra. Sra. De Belen, Ecce Homo, San Jose, Nstra. Sra. De Soledad, Santa Lucia, Nstra. Sra. Del Carmen, and San Clemente. The sculpture and paintings could have been brought in from elsewhere or done by unnamed local people. By the mid-1800s, hacienda was owned by the Santa Ana family who happened to be relatives of the Asuncions, famed artists of Santa Cruz, Manila. One of them, Antonio Asuncion (1749-1849), is said to have visited or stayed with the Santa Anas and while in Angono taught locals the art of painting, presumably including the preparation of colors, the use of wood and metal supports, and blowing up small prints and drawings It was probably from Antonio Asuncion that local boys Juan Senson (in later life known as Tandang Juancho) and Pedro Piñon (Pedrong Pintor) learned how to paint. Both were exceptionally talented, being expert in both sculpture and painting. Their protégé and townmate Carlos “Botong” Francisco and today’s Manuel Baldemor of Paete, Laguna are among the few who work in the two media. Both Senson and Piñon produced mainly religious works churches in Angono and nearby towns and for the homes of townmates: the Immaculate Conception, incidents in the life of the Holy Family, the 14 Stations of the Cross, processional banners, the Evangelists and various saints. Senson’s genre pieces are remarkable, comparable to the *letras y figuras* of Jose Honorato Lozano (ca. 1821-1885). Lozano’s works are mostly on paper depicting single scenes, of vendors and cockfights for example, whereas Senson painted more complex scenes. One is possibly at an Hacienda riverside where two men dancing what seems like the “Itik-Itik” folk dance that mimics flapping ducks to guitar accompaniment, watched by women beside themselves in laughter. Another is set at the foot of Monte Jumara (“stinky mountain”) inside the Hacienda; hunters are about to set off with shotguns and hunting dogs, noting that the Tagalog word for hunt is *mañgañgaso*. A *binatillo* is hiding in the bushes apparently intent on startling two approaching dalagita. The painter may also have depicted himself in *Vista Parcial*, the young man at the painting’s center in khaki pants, rolling up the sleeves of his white shirt. Angono is the hometown of National Artists Lucio San Pedro (music) and Carlos “Botong” Francisco (visual arts). Supporting its claim as “Art Capital of the Philippines,” the town has a flourishing community of painters and continues in traditional Holy Week and fiesta celebrations. Tandang Juancho and Pedrong Pintor live on. *Notes: (a) This article is based on James Owen G. Saguinsin,* Nineteenth-Century Masters of Angono Art *(Quezon City: Vibal Foundation, Inc., 2023).  Saguinsin is Associate Professor at Far Eastern University; (b) The province of Rizal was previously named Morong and “Laguna de Bay” actually means the lagoon of the town of Bae (now Bay, Laguna, pronounced “ba-e”); and (c) The Asuncions of Santa Cruz, Manila included sculptor Leoncio and painters Justiniano and Mariano.* *Comments are cordially invited, addressed to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).*