{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":56473,"auction_id":110,"set_id":144,"lot_number":"47","artist":"Fernando Amorsolo (1892 - 1972)","title":"The Burning of Manila","starting_price":18000000,"signed_dated":"signed, dated, and inscribed “Manila - New Year, 1942”","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"40” x 60” (102 cm x 152 cm)","property":"PROPERTY FROM THE E. ZÓBEL INC. COLLECTION","coa":null,"provenance":"Acquired directly from the artist by the Zóbel Family","exhibited":"National Museum of the Philippines, Gallery VIII (Silvina and Juan C.\nLaya Hall) of the National Museum of Fine Arts, Manila, Loaned to the\nNational Museum of the Philippines from 2015 to 2025","literature":null,"write_up":"The Burning of Manila Amorsolo, Visual Historian of the War One of the Largest Amorsolo Masterpieces to Enter the Market by ADRIAN MARANAN \nImpeccable Provenance Measuring 3 feet by 5 feet, The Burning of Manila is one of the largest Amorsolo paintings ever to be auctioned. It is also the largest of Amorsolo’s paintings centering on “The Bombing of the Intendencia” / ”The Burning of Manila” subject, even surpassing the one at the UP Vargas Museum. The painting possesses impeccable provenance and a storied history. The work was acquired by Don Jacobo Zóbel de Ayala y Roxas from Amorsolo himself during the Japanese occupation. Don Jacobo had been one of those sentenced to endure the infamous Bataan Death March and become a prisonerof-war. As a serviceman, the painting may have reminded him of the unwavering heroism of the Filipinos during that darkest period in our history. In his final days in 1971, Don Jacobo would bequeath this painting to his son, Don Enrique.<br /><br /> In November 2015, The Burning of Manila was leased to the National Museum of the Philippines on a long-term loan by Don Enrique's wife, Mrs. Dee Anne Hora-Zobel. The painting would become the centerpiece of Gallery VIII (Silvina and Juan C. Laya Hall) of the National Museum of Fine Arts, showcasing works depicting the Second World War. The work greeted museum visitors as they entered the gallery. The Burning of Manila would remain at the National Museum for a decade, until recently, when the family of Don Enrique decided it was time to pass it on to its new owner.<br /><br /> Don Enrique's ties to the painting was emphasized by the fact that his grandfather and namesake, the industrialist and philanthropist Don Enrique Jacobo Zobel de Ayala, was the one who sponsored Amorsolo's scholarship to the famed Real Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, after being impressed of his design for the iconic logo (still in use today) of the popular gin brand of his own company Ginebra San Miguel.<br /><br /> Beyond its provenance, The Burning of Manila holds greater significance, coinciding with the recently concluded 80th anniversary commemorations of the Battle for the Liberation of Manila and 83 years since its fall into Japanese hands. It sees Amorsolo as a visual historian, a painter imbued with a social responsibility to preserve on canvas the tragedy the war inflicted on his nation, serving as an act of remembrance, resistance, and melancholy.<br /><br /> The Burning of Manila depicts the riverside portion of Manila as it looked on New Year's Day, 1942. On the left portion can be seen the towers of the Jesuit San Ignacio Church, the dome of the Manila Cathedral, the Aduana Building and the Santo Domingo Church (both had been reduced to ruins as they were casualties of the first Japanese bombing of Manila on December 27, 1941), and the Chamber of Commerce Building. To the right is Fort Santiago and its imposing Baluarte de Santa Barbara. The present-day Riverside Drive is packed with people in a state of frenzy: panicking men carrying sackfuls of goods, caretelas and calesas being pulled over to safety, anxious mothers and their frightened children, and others falling to their knees as they witness the horrors unfold before their very eyes. The raging flames, made intensely palpable through Amorsolo’s masterful handling of color and impasto, engulf a once glorious landscape of Hispanic, with the Pasig overwhelmed with fire and foundering boats that were once brimming with trade and commerce.<br /><br /> Amorsolo's signature sunlit landscape seemingly struggles to free itself from the billowing smoke smothering the atmosphere, with the mighty Mount Samat covered in haze in the background foreshadowing the fate of thousands of men on their march towards their harrowing demise. It was the nation's darkest New Year. Manila's radio stations had fallen quiet in contrast with the screams and chaos of the people. Chanting the Lord's Prayer became a futile attempt at immediate salvation. There was no God among the people.<br /><br /> Amorsolo conceived The Burning of Manila from his vantage point at the Jones Bridge, when he and his family escaped from their home and ran towards the Pasig River. There, instead of encountering temporary relief, he witnessed how his beloved city had fallen from grace. During this time, Amorsolo lived in a rented two-story apartment owned by the Lopa Family at 2132 Azcarraga Street (Recto), located near the Far Eastern University and the Quiapo and San Sebastian Churches. He was riding high on his prolific success, with the most recent being his historic first-prize win at the 1939 New York World's Fair for his nowiconic Afternoon Meal of the Rice Workers.<br /><br />When the Japanese occupied Manila in January 1942, Amorsolo, as recounted by his grandson Don Amorsolo in the book Maestro Fernando C. Amorsolo: Recollections of the Amorsolo Family, \"[was in] the second floor of his studio [and] heard people shouting and running. He saw the skies blackened with smoke. He ran out of the apartment and, unfortunate presage of it becoming a shell of its former glory","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":30000000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":30000000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":36048000,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":60256,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/47.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":60650,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/47d.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":60649,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/47c.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":60648,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/47b.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":60646,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/47a.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"increment":[],"prev":46,"next":48,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}