{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":58439,"auction_id":121,"set_id":155,"lot_number":"75","artist":"Espiridion Arevalo (1816 - c.1890s)","title":"St. Thomas Aquinas (Sto. Tomas de Aquino)","starting_price":1000000,"signed_dated":"Presented to Pope Leo XIII by the Dominican Province of
the Philippines, founders of the University of Sto. Tomas
Surrounded by four commemorative medallions
Signed (under the saint’s seat) “Espir Arev”
(Espiridion Arevalo, sculptor from Sta Cruz, Manila)
c. April 1888, on the occasion of the Pope’s sacerdotal jubilee
","medium":" Ivory","size":" without base
H: 8 3/4\" (22 cm)
L: 4 3/4\" (12 cm)
W: 5 1/2\" (14 cm)

with base
H: 11\" (28 cm)
L: 5 1/2\" (14 cm)
W: 6 1/2\" (17 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"House of Braganza, the noble house whose descendant ruled Portugal\nfrom1853 to 1910, possibly a gift of the Pope to a member of the royal\nfamily","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"This exquisite ivory statue of the greatest medieval theologian St. Thomas Aquinas (or Sto. Tomas de Aquino) is at the center of an extraordinary crossroads — a trifecta of the revered saint, the beloved Pope Leo XIII, protector of the poor and the patron of higher learning, and the Philippines’ — and Asia’s — oldest university, the Universidad de Sto. Tomas.

St. Thomas Aquinas is the most well-known member of the Dominican order, more formally known as the Province of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines.

The saint is depicted in the habit of the Dominican friars (Order of the Preachers), holding a feathered quill in his right hand and a scroll in his left, symbolic of his various monumental works, including the Summa Theologiae. A radiant sun on his chest represents the illumination of philosophical thought who reputedly shone in both virtue and doctrine.

Trodden by the saint’s foot is a disheveled figure, possibly the Arabian philosopher Averroes who Aquinas cited and corrected, demonstrating the triumph of his superior theological reasoning.

The first medallion reads “A Su Santidad Leon XIII en su Jubileo Sacerdotal (To His Holiness Leo XIII on his Sacerdotal Jubilee.”

The medallion on the right reads “Ratio Ad Humanum Fastigium Thomae Pennis Evecta, Jam Pere Nequit Sublimus Assurgere Aetern Patr.” This is a quote from Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Aeterna Patris, extolling the virtues of St. Thomas Aquinas. He wrote “Human reasoning borne on the wings of Thomas Aquinas could scarcely rise higher.”

The medallion on the left reads “S. Thomam Patronum Declaramus Scholarum Catholicarum Cum Hoc. Sit” and which refers to Pope Leo XIII’s landmark proclamation of St. Thomas as the patron of all Catholic schools.

The final medallion reads “Provincia del Smo. Rosario de Filipinas” (Province of the Most Holy Province of the Philippines.)

The other protagonist was Pope Leo XIII (1810 - 1903) was an exceptional pope renowned for his keen intellect and his admiration for St. Thomas Aquinas. He was also the author of Rerum Novarum(1891), which addressed the condition of the working classes. He strongly advocated a return to the philosophical and theological teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, promoting them as the standard for Catholic education through his encyclical Aeterni Patris (1879).

The National Historical Commission of the Philippines noted that the Dominicans were the fourth group of religious orders after the Augustinians, Franciscans and Jesuits that arrived in the Philippines, doing so in 1587.

“One of them was Fr. Miguel de Benavides who was appointed as the third Archbishop of Manila in 1603. Fr. Benavides most important legacy was his founding of UST, an institution of higher learning, initially intended to be a “seminary-college” to prepare young men for the priesthood. In his last will, Fr. Benavides donated his personal library and 1,500 pesos which was a huge amount of money at that time, to finance the establishment of the college.

Interestingly, the original name of UST was “the Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario which was established in Intramuros with Fr. Domingo Gonzalez, O.P. appointed as rector. It was unfortunate that Benavides died on July 26, 1605 without even seeing the fruit of his work. In 1619, Pope Paul V granted the offering of degrees in Philosophy and Theology to all Dominican colleges in the world. Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Rosario was renamed Colegio de Santo Tomas, in memory of the foremost Dominican Theologian and its patron-saint, St. Thomas Aquinas, in 1625.

“Pope Innocent X elevated the college to a university in 1645, making it the oldest existing University in Asia.

“On September 17, 1902, Pope Leo XIII made the University of Santo Tomas a “Pontifical University”, and by 1947, Pope Pius XII bestowed upon it the title of “The Catholic University of the Philippines”. The University of Santo Tomas is the second university in the world after the Gregorian University in Vatican to be granted the formal title of Pontifical University.”","lot_group":"OBJET D' ARTS","lot_details_html":"

Espiridion Arevalo (1816 - c.1890s)
St. Thomas Aquinas (Sto. Tomas de Aquino)
Presented to Pope Leo XIII by the Dominican Province of the Philippines, founders of the University of Sto. Tomas Surrounded by four commemorative medallions
Signed (under the saint’s seat) “Espir Arev”
(Espiridion Arevalo, sculptor from Sta Cruz, Manila
Ivory
c. April 1888, on the occasion of the Pope’s sacerdotal
jubilee
without base
H: 8 3/4\" (22 cm)
L: 4 3/4\" (12 cm)
W: 5 1/2\" (14 cm)

with base
H: 11\" (28 cm)
L: 5 1/2\" (14 cm)
W: 6 1/2\" (17 cm)

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