Vicente Sotto Lecture 2024 April
“The Forgotten Avila Paintings in the Convent of Boljoon: Reexamining the Stylistic and Formal Qualities of the Ceiling Paintings of the Convent of Boljoon and its Re-attribution as a Work by the Prewar Cebuano Painter, Canuto Avila”
Jay Nathan T. Jore
ABSTRACT:
The talk will center around the prewar movement in Cebuano art of decorating churches and public buildings with illusionistic painting devices such as the trompe l’oile and quadratura techniques. The foremost artists practicing illusionistic site-specific works were Raymundo Rubi Francia from Parian and Canuto Avila and his children from San Nicholas. Francia’s works remain preserved in many churches in Bohol while the remaining extant Avila ceiling work is found in the church of Dalaguete in Cebu. To ascertain the significance of Francia and Avila in the development of Cebuano art, the talk will expound on the distinctive stylistic and painterly devices used by these artists and present issues in the identification and attribution of unsigned works that bear stylistic similarities to Francia and Avila. The talk will present a connoisseurial analysis of the ceiling paintings of the convent of Boljoon currently attributed as a work by a local artist Mariano Villareal who himself painted the grand painting scheme of the Boljoon church. By examining the formal elements of the convent paintings, a new attribution can be made that could show the extent of the artistic influence of the prewar ceiling painters of Cebu and the significance of their works as site-specific architectural paintings in contrast to the more popular movable easel paintings.
Date: April 20, 2024
Category: Vicente Sotto Lecture Series