Art Forms

Super Rushed! (What’s new Alps?)

1. Discuss the aesthetics of religion and everyday life in the context of the architectural styles from the Greek to the Renaissance period. Cite similarities and differences in the Philippine context seen in the churches of Morong, Paete and Pakil.

Religion played a major role in history through the showcase of different forms of art especially the ones espoused in the field of architecture. Specifically saying, it is the Roman Catholic Church who have shown great exuberance in featuring their grandest forms of art that apparently links to their philosophy and faith. I would be first discussing about the value intrinsically present in the aesthetics of religion. In my humble analysis, there are three factors that play in religion’s aesthetics: Iconoclastic Nature, Power Factor and Emotional Involvement.

Iconoclastic Nature. On of the most intriguing feature of the Roman Catholic Church is its being iconoclastic which the same is true for its followers. Iconoclastic is a characteristic of a specific individual or groups of individuals that show faith or idolism to a tangible object. The most famous examples would be Christ’s crucifix and statues of different saints. The Catholic Church has already proven that their iconoclastic nature is justified but we would be focusing on it inherent importance in contributing to the aesthetics of religion. We could see that these things were the media wherein different artisans showcased their talents. It was important due to the fact that it exhibited the genre and theme of a specific period. I do believe that the iconoclastic nature of the Roman Catholic Church was due to the compliance of the said institution to the emergence of arts during the classical period. Moreover, the Catholic Church is an epitome of artistic grandeur through its main art foundation—being iconoclastic.

Power Factor. During the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church, the Church itself is equated to Politics. We have known throughout the written accounts of different historians that the Church was indeed a great institution, not only because of its dominance but also due to its bureaucracy and strong influence to the state. Church authorities wanted that this kind of possession of power be parallel to then infrastructures that they would be building. Hence, we could see the efforts of the institution to build churches that would evidently show the power that it has.

Emotional Involvement. The Roman Catholic Church believes that the architecture of their churches must involve emotional factors. That is, when the people of the followers see something, there would be an emotional attachment or feeling toward a specific art form. That’s why we could see the institution’s infrastructures, especially during the Baroque period, full of artistic details, if not an artistic exaggeration. It was done of purpose so that the faithful would have this sense of awe upon seeing or even touching a specific form of art. The same is true with the paintings and sculptures. For example, we have the bloody depiction of Christ’s crucifixion. This is done to remind the people that He had done a great sacrifice to save the whole of humanity. This then translates to the followers being really faithful. And last but not the least example, we have the pictorial representation of the Last Judgment. The paintings were done to exhibit awareness to the people that there would be a Judgment at world’s end. It then translates to people being good beings because they believe that their souls would be weighed in the after life. These things further prove that art forms in the religious context have a powerful purpose—to permeate themselves to people’s psychological nature.

Religion is really powerful. Really powerful that even their aesthetic considerations are already powerful enough to mobilize the people to faith. But it would be a realization that the aesthetic factors are not only present in religion per se. We could down into a more basic level which is the everyday life. I can see three aesthetic factors in the context of architectural style: Profession, Citizenship and Multiplicity of Purposes.

Profession. Proximity to a specific culture is really something which is considered when building a preferred infrastructure. In the case of the San Santiago Apostol Church or popularly known as Paete Church, we could see that the church also showcased the craft of the Paete people which is woodcarving. Even though the church is adorned with the theme of the Baroque Period, the people of Paete, have incorporated their own skills in further improving the aesthetic value present in their church. One would like to think that the Paete church façade is not only a manifestation of local reaction to Baroque influence but also a reflection of the artistry and exuberance of the people (CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art).

Response to Nature. This factor may be weird but I think this is worth mentioning. This factor especially applies to San Geronimo Church. I wildly assumed that Morong, Rizal was once a haven on disasters like flood and fire. Therefore, the church was built on an elevated ground to ensure its safety. But it was more than that, the elevation the church made a dramatic effect of the church when seen from a distance. It emphasized that the church itself is the highest form of structure found within the vicinity.

Multiplicity of Purposes. The churches found in our tour are not only purposed to celebrate masses. They too serve other functions such as being a convento and even being a school. Evidently, this factor affected the church’s architectural style because of the need to adapt to image stipulated to the church itself. I could sometimes feel that the newer structures are not that similar to the main building which is the church. But I saw the effort of building newer ones that are at least similar in style.

About the similarities and differences of the Western setting and of the Philippine setting, I believe that I have already discussed them. The Western and the Philippine setting are almost similar. But I think that different factors may have affected the similarities that made the three churches in focus unique. These were discussed in aesthetics of religion in everyday life.

1. Compare the “Last Judgment” in Paete/Pakil with a similar painting of your choice.

I have chosen Hans Memling’s version of Last Judgment to compare to the versions found in Paete and Pakil. All of the primary elements of The Last Judgment are present in all three versions: Jesus Christ, Heaven and Hell. But the most obvious difference is Memling’s style in dividing the canvass or maybe the painting itself into three divisions to emphasize the presence of three different locations. The divide orientation used by Memling is horizontal. Whereas, the two local versions has vertical as an orientation. Moreover, in all of the three paintings, Jesus Christ showed an “I am back” facial expression. Of course, I cannot grasp the most appropriate description but I believe that this is the best one J. Another similarity is the presence of Christ’s panel in judging the mortals. I believe those are saints. Lastly, I will be differentiating the paintings’ depiction of heaven and hell.

Heaven. In Memling’s version, the gate of heaven was shown. The gate is comparable to Gothic and Baroque architecture. Saint Peter and some angels welcome the good people in the kingdom. It is also evident that heaven is indeed a highly situated place due to the presence of stairs. In the Paete Church version, there is no direct depiction of heaven, rather, the higher divide shows people located on a specific structure with windows. The Pakil version on the other hand, showed heaven as a place situated near the clouds, close to the company of the angels and saints.

Hell. All of the three paintings showed hell as a “hot” place through the usage of fiery colors. Furthermore, all of them showed “Hell creatures” like black men and some sort of a large, weird, scary face. The three also showed the different “mechanisms” present in hell like scourging the damned onto the fire.

This work by Alfred Miguel M. Aguado is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.