{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":57550,"auction_id":116,"set_id":150,"lot_number":"127","artist":"Fernando Amorsolo (1892 - 1972)","title":"Mangtatawas (Albularya)","starting_price":1200000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1952 (lower left)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"20\" x 16\" (51 cm x 41 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Private collection, Netherlands","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"This meticulously painted piece of an old woman cradling a mortar and pestle can only be described as a highly personal work created by the Maestro to test his own powers and practice his considerable skills.
It’s a rare departure from Fernando Amorsolo’s canon of pre-colonial princesses, farmer’s daughters cooking meals and nimble maidens fetching water. In truth, even his depictions of women mourning the death and destruction of the War, are beautifully tragic.
Fernando Amorsolo was schooled (and as pointed out by Ramon Villegas, was also eminently qualified to even teach) at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. He would have been conversant in the Spanish Baroque taste for the wizened, more interesting features of men and women portrayed in the Museo del Prado. Here, Velasquez and Murillo and Goya and several others would capture the symbolisms of the ‘vanitas’, underlining the swiftness of time and the fleetingness of beauty.
In the work at hand, Amorsolo captures the well-lined face of an old woman sitting in a ‘bahay na pawid’ (nipa hut), The tiered walls and open window are detailed behind her. She sits in front of a bed with a red blanket. The ancient lady wears a kimona blouse now several sizes too large for her (had she fallen ill? is it somebody else’s clothes?) A saya, so faded in color that is now a pale blue, is her skirt.
The pestle she holds is hidden in her grasp, only a well-worn mortar may be seen. She closes her eyes, perhaps wearily; but she has the air of a ‘mangtatawas’ or albularya, a doctor of Filipino folk medicine, or even a healer using the
ritual of tawas (awas) to divine illnesses and their cures.
This work reveals its roots in Amorsolo’s Spanish training and reveals his own personal affinities.","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":4400000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":4400000,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":0,"hammer_price":5287040,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":62039,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/127.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":62224,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/127c.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":62223,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/127b.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":62222,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/127a.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"increment":[2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":126,"next":128,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}