Kisame: Heaven Right Here, Right Now

MANILA, Philippines - Distinguished as artists par excellance during their days, Cebuano painters Raymundo Francia and Canuto Avila were responsible for the church murals and ceiling paintings that have adorned around 20 or so Spanish colonial Catholic churches in Bohol since the 1920s.

Francia and Avila, commissioned by His Excellency Most Revered Juan Gorordo, the first Filipino Bishop of Cebu, painted biblical scenes and images of saints on the wooden or iron sheet ceilings of these churches just before the Second World War. The artists, together with their assistants and apprentices, worked on the masterpieces by copying and scaling estampitas available during the times. It is the works these Cebuano painters that people see today.

Living landmarks of Spanish influence in the Philippines, Boholano churches were established by doctrineros, the first missionaries who came to the province as early as 1595. Shortly thereafter, a visita was erected in Baclayon. Constructed by indios on polo or forced labor, the churches were made with square blocks of coral stones cemented together with millions of egg whites. In times of peace, their reposed massive structures and enormous solid buttresses have served parishioners as places of worship and depositories of art, sculpture, and music. In times of war and calamity, these churches have also served as refuge.

In celebration of National Heritage Month, Ayala Museum, together with the Filipino Heritage Festival, Inc. (FFHI), recently presented Kisame: Visions of Heaven on Earth. Held at the National Museum, the exhibit featured photography in tarpaulins and murals by Executive Secretary of the Philippines Paquito Ochoa. Curated by Fr. Ted Torralba and Ken Esguerra of the Ayala Museum, Kisame offered a closer look at the antique masterpieces hidden inside the centuries-old churches of Bohol. More important, it hoped to reinvigorate the theological science of catechesis through the medium of the visual arts.

Of the Spanish-era churches now under the care of the Diocese of Tagbilaran, 12 boast of intricately painted ceilings in various stages of preservation, including churches in the parishes of Albuquerque, Baclayon, Cortes, Dauis, Dimiao, Lila, Loay, Loboc, Loon, Maribojoc, Panglao, and Tubigon. "Proper documentation of these ceilings is important, because a number of them are beginning to deteriorate," FHFI president Armita Rufino pointed out. "Before conservationists can work to preserve the treasures accurately, documenting them will ensure that their restoration will remain faithful to their original renditions."