Mapping out art & history at the mall

MANILA, Philippines - SM Supermalls and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila recently launched “Limbag: Early Impressions of the Philippines,” an exhibit featuring images of colonial Philippines produced from the 1700s to the 1900s at SM Mall of Asia.

“Limbag” is the fourth in a series of exhibitions created by the Metropolitan Museum of Manila for the SM premium malls. It is aimed at promoting arts and culture to a wider audience. All the 19 engraved antiquarian maps and 29 prints are from the private collection of Federico Pascual.

Handcolored lithographs of the natives of Manila by Magi Pujadas

The images represent products of discovery and exploration by European navigators, explorers, naturalists, and travelers. The Philippines, which they call the East Indies and Oceania, was for them a mysterious, beautiful, rich, and exciting land inhabited by exotic people.

Apart from early maps of Asia by French, English, and American cartographers, varying maps of the Philippines are also included in the exhibit. The collection will also give mallgoers a rare glimpse of Philippine history through maps: regional maps made by Augustinian Recollect friars that chart their parishes and missions in different parts of the country, a political map of Luzon during the Spanish period, and four maps from the famous Atlas de Filipinas 1889, which was made by an all-Filipino team of draftsmen under the leadership of Jesuit priest Fr. Jose Algue at the Observatorio de Manila.

Art collectors Federico and Frances Pascual, prinmaker Virgilio Aviado, SM VP for marketing Millie Dizon, and Metropolitan Museum director Eric Zerrudo

“Limbag” offers a glimpse of life in the Philippines during centuries past through engravings and lithographs of native Filipinos — the Kalingas from the north, the Tagalogs, the Negritos, and the Gulangas and Mandayas from Mindanao. It also includes prints of natural scenery like the Pasig River, Cagayan River, and Mayon Volcano, as well as structures like the churches of San Sebastian, Binondo, Lallo in Cagayan, and Caysaysya in Taal. These prints were illustrations from the pages of important publications such as French travel books; the La Illustraction Espanola y Americana in Madrid, which began running a series of Tipos Filipinos or Filipino Types in 1872; and the Royal Gallery of Costumes published in Paris in 1842, which contains more than 250 lithographs of costumes from around the world.

Federico Pascual, whose amazing antiquarian maps and prints comprise the exhibit, graced the launch together with his family — wife Frances, and children Michael, Gabby, and Chit. Metropolitan Museum vice chairman Cora Alvina, Board of Trustees member Jaime Laya, renowned printmaker Pandy Aviado, and art lovers Luis Morales, Wig Tysman, Marigen Russel, Love Olivo, and Marj Villongco also attended the event. They were welcomed by Metropolitan Museum director Eric Zerudo, SM VP for marketing Millie Dizon, and SM Mall of Asia assistant mall manager Carlos Antonio Vilchez.