PROPERTY FROM THE DON J. ANTONIO ARANETA COLLECTION
Bahay Kubo
signed and dated 1912 (lower left)
oil on wood
10" x 16 3/4" (25 cm x 43 cm)




LITERATURE: Araneta, Antonio S., ed. 1030 R. Hidalgo: Volume II, Legacy in Art. Manila: Mara, Inc., 1986. Full-colorillustration and painting description on page 83.

Hailing from Santa Cruz, then an arrabal (suburb) of Manila (Intramuros), Ramon Martinez studied at the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura in the later decades of the 19th century. He would go on to teach at the storied academy by July 1892, teaching principios de figura, acuarela pastel, and pintura escenográfica. Together with Vicente Rivera y Mir and Toribio Antillon, Martinez would also frequent the home of the great artistmentor Lorenzo Guerrero, from whom they would receive artistic guidance and enlightenment. Martinez rose to fame with his victorious gold medal win for A Country Scene at the 1904 Universal Exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri. Martinez also created the iconic Tribute of the Filipino People to the Heroes of '96 or Monument to the Heroes of 1896 (unveiled in September 1911 in Balintawak before it was relocated in November 1968 in front of the UP Diliman's Vinzons Hall), which became the archetypal image of Andres Bonifacio and the katipuneros: donned in camisa de chino and red kundiman pants, barefooted, and proudly holding a bolo in defiance against the Spanish colonizers. One of Martinez's works, titled Rustic Idyll (1903), was in the pre-war collection of the National Museum of the Philippines. Martinez was one of the Filipino artists whose works shaped and defined the time-honored tradition of Philippine genre painting. The artist and critic E. Aguilar Cruz uses the term "autochthonous tradition" to refer to "the indigenous way of painting that started seriously in the 1850s, reached its peak in the 1920s, declined into formula in the 1940s, and exists in variable forms to this day." In the works at hand from the 1910s, Martinez depicts ubiquitous scenes in the Philippine countryside during the early decades of the 20th century, a time for the profound search for a national identity, which started during the late 19th century and continued towards the early years of the succeeding century. The first depicts a country road lined with bahay kubos and towering palm trees. A woman dressed in the traditional baro't saya and carrying her child can be seen walking past a panadero vending his freshly baked pan de sal. The second depicts once again bahay kubos, but this time, Martinez captures them from the river's perspective, as if nature safeguards the existence of humanity and all living creatures depending on its blessings. A woman standing and carrying a batya on her head while being at the banks of the river indicates the act of doing laundry. Martinez employs muted colors dominated by and primed with the browns of academic art, coming from his training at the Academia. Martinez does not imbue the works with a romantic atmosphere. Instead, the works are straightforward snapshots of the mundaneness of everyday living. They echo Lorenzo Guerrero's principles of making nature the protagonist of the composition, with humans as mere supporting actors in the grand orchestra of God's creation (Guerrero remained steadfast to his belief that God is the only true artist). Furthermore, Martinez imbues the works with such a stance that indicates a Filipinismo aimed at preserving the local and indigenous traditions of the country as a reaction to the brisk sweep of modernization and Americanization during the American colonial period. (Adrian Maranan)