{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":1706,"auction_id":3,"set_id":4,"lot_number":"18","artist":"Charles W. Andrews (British, circa 1830 - 1869)","title":"Santo Domingo Church after\nthe 1863 Earthquake, Philippines","starting_price":400000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1863 (lower left)","medium":"watercolor on board","size":"14\" x 10 1/2\" (36 cm x 27 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Private Collection, UK","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Charles W. Andrews was a British artist who arrived in Sydney, Australia, in 1853 aboard the steamship Cleopatra. Andrews introduced himself as a “Portrait and Miniature Painter” in the Illustrated Sydney News, and his illustrations appeared in the local press and various printed ephemera.
\nAfter living in Sydney for roughly four years, Andrews immigrated to Hong Kong in 1857. That same year, Andrews visited Manila. He worked for the Hong Kong and Philippine presses from 1857 to the 1860s and was the leading artist for the short-lived Ilustracion Filipina in Manila from 1859 to 1860.
\nAmong Andrews’ best-known works are his illustrations depicting various Philippine scenes. Perhaps his most poignant are his depictions of the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck Manila and adjacent provinces on June 3, 1863, at approximately 7:31 in the evening, the feast of Corpus Christi. A tribulation that lasted for about thirty seconds, the earthquake wreaked havoc on precious life, elegant architecture, and valuable properties.
\nIn his Catalogue of violent and destructive earthquakes in the Philippines, published in 1910, the Jesuit priest/ scientist Fray Miguel Saderra Masó noted that the 1863 earthquake was:
“a disastrous earthquake, comparable with that of 1645. Laid in ruins the [Manila] Cathedral and nearly all other churches, except San Agustin, the palace of the GovernorGeneral, the Audiencia, the barracks, warehouses, etc.; all in all, 46 public buildings in ruins, and 25 others badly damaged. Of private houses, 570 were destroyed, 531 left tottering. Total, 1,172 buildings in ruins or badly damaged. The number of victims was appalling. It is estimated that in Manila and the surrounding towns alone, the number of killed reached 400, that of the injured 2,000. The catastrophe likewise involved many towns in Rizal, Laguna, and Cavite, where it destroyed churches and a great number of houses.”
\n One of the most eminent personalities who died from the earthquake was Father Pedro Pelaez, the “Father of the Philippine Secularization Movement.” Pelaez, together with members of Manila’s Cabildo Eclesíastico, was unfortunately inside the Manila Cathedral celebrating the solemn rites of Corpus Christi. Fourteen members of the Cabildo in the Cathedral survived the earthquake, including Pelaez’s protégé, Jose Burgos, who would be martyred in Bagumbayan with Jacinto Zamora and Mariano Gomez due to accusations stemming from the 1872 Cavite Mutiny.
\nIn this particular piece, Andrews depicts the home of the miraculous La Naval de Manila, the ravaged edifice of the ‘Fourth’ Santo Domingo Church (formally inaugurated in 1753 and the fourth church structure to be built after the much destructive 1645 earthquake destroyed the third one), with its ruined bell towers and damaged exteriors. Debris from the destroyed left belfry is hazardously scattered throughout the vicinity. Two Dominican friars dressed in their religious habits are seen conversing with each other, probably surveying the damage sustained by their mother church. Intriguing figures of two women dressed in an all-black traje de mestiza, with their faces covered with veils, signify mourning for the destruction of the great walled city and the death of many of its inhabitants.
\nThe Santo Domingo Church would again be rebuilt beginning in 1864 in its iconic Neo-Gothic style designed by Filipino architect Felix Roxas. The ‘Fifth’ Santo Domingo Church, inaugurated in 1868, was one of the most glorious churches in pre-war Intramuros. On December 27, 1941, the Santo Domingo Church of Intramuros would meet its final demise, with its magnificent Neo-Gothic structure reduced to ashes by Japanese bombs after the Japanese had invaded Manila. The ‘Sixth’ Santo Domingo Church would be inaugurated in 1954, albeit in a different location, in Quezon City. (A.M.)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"
Charles W. Andrews (British, circa 1830 - 1869) Santo Domingo Church after the 1863 Earthquake, Philippines signed and dated 1863 (lower left) watercolor on board 14\" x 10 1/2\" (36 cm x 27 cm)