Jose Maria Cariño’s book a priceless heritage

Our most treasured artistic heritage is a letras y figuras painting by Jose Honorato Lozano whose name is not found in the Encyclopedia of the Philippines nor in the Who’s Who in Philippine History by historian Carlos Quirino who was the founding father of the Ayala Library and Museum and director of both the National Museum and National Library. The reason we treasured the painting was that the name it featured was that of Balvino Mauricio who was implicated in the Cavite Mutiny of 1872 and exiled to Guam. The first Roces who arrived in the Philippines married Balvino Mauricio’s sister, Severa Mauricio y de Jesus. So, Balvino Mauricio was my grand-uncle.

The painting that highlights his name features the house described by Jose Rizal in the first chapter of Noli Me Tangere. This is according to General Jose Alejandrino who in his book The Price of Freedom said that Rizal told him that the house he described was that on 175 Juan Luna Street and that it was owned by a gentleman called Balvino Mauricio. (Later, it was purchased by Telesforo Chuidian, founder of Club Filipino.) As for the painter himself, the only information that we gathered about him was that he was the greatest exponent of letras y figuras, a genre of painting that is said to be distinctly Filipino.

Now Ars Mundi, Philippinae has published Jose Maria Carino’s coffee-table book Jose Honesto Lozano Filipinas 1847 that features all the different types of painting that Lozano executed and we are fully convinced that Lozano was the greatest Filipino painter of the 19th century, an honor attributed to both Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo. The only thing that Luna and Hidalgo proved was that Filipino painters could paint like Europeans. Luna’s masterpiece was the Spoliarium that depicted Roman gladiators. Hidalgo’s was Virgines Cristianas Expuestos al Populacho, or Virgin Martyrs Turned Over to a Mob. Even their paintings of Filipino scenes had a European light. The Philippine art world had to wait for Fernando Amorsolo to capture the exact illumination of the Philippine sun.

All art is social. It reflects two things – the artist and his time. Lozano’s paintings capture the Philippines of his time. No Philippine art library is complete without Jose Maria A. Cariño’s Jose Honorato Lozano. It is an ideal Christmas gift that all lovers of Philippine art should get for themselves.