Letras y Figuras: Jose M. J. Lerma

Jose M.J. Lerma (active end of 19th Century)

 

a.) Letras y Figuras (Jose M.J. Lerma)

inscribed “Recuerdo del año de 1896”

pencil on paper

 

23” x 31” (58 cm x 79 cm)

b.) Letras y Figuras (Maria V. Tiangco)

dated 1896

pencil on paper

23” x 31” (58 cm x 79 cm)

 

Starting bid: P 300,000

 

Literature:

Cariño, Jose Maria A., Jose Honorato Lozano: Filipinas 1847, Ars Mundi, Philippinae, Makati City, 2002, p. 49 (illustrated)

 

At the Peabody Museum in Massachusetts, one can suddenly be startled to attention by two paintings that at first look like a presentation of the Alphabet, but if looked at second blink, are representations of Manila Bay in the 1850s. The age tinted paintings on manila paper depicting, vignettes of nineteenth century Philippine life, ingeniously arranged, delineated and highlighted with color to form the letters spelling out a certain person’s name are some of the most quaint and endlessly fascinating relics of Filipino culture in the Spanish time.

 

The Letras y Figuras as works of art trace their origin way back to the art of book illumination in the Middle Ages. Their introduction into the Philippines is attributed to the religious missionaries. A practical minded artistic priest must have used them to interest his parishioners, all at once, with reading, writing and the rudiments of art. The earliest known painter in this style is Jose Honorato Lozano of the Sampaloc district of old Manila. Although one may still come upon many Letras y Figuras in private collections in the Philippines today, caution must be used before attributing these to Lozano, as he had many contemporaries and followers.

 

There is, for example, an obvious difference between Lozano’s style and that of the “J-O-S-E M.J. L-E-R-M-A” limner, Jose M.J. Lerma himself.

 

Lozano’s works are characterized with a penchant for rigid, straight lines which render his human figures a little stiff looking, even if depicted in action. Lerma gave his figures more curvilinear contours, which gave them a sense of free movement. Another noticeable characteristic of Lozano’s work is his “horror vacui,” squeezing his artistic material into his visual area; while Lerma’s work possesses an elegant sense of open, flowing space.

 

There is a self-taught attempt at architectural perspective too, drawn just like how a child might draw old houses that can be seen with the depiction of a Philippine Pueblo and the undulating horizon in the space between “J-O-S-E M J and L-E-R-M-A”. This architectural depiction permits Lerma to release an undercurrent of pleasant irrationality that turns a snapshot view into a caprice.

 

Jose M.J Lerma, the artist, belongs to a generation of Letras y Figuras artists who did works at a time when Jose Honorato Lozano was already feebly old or long dead. Thus, all these latter artists such as Lerma deserve a separate study for they represent another aspect, a latter development, of the art of Letras Y Figuras.

 

For example, Jose M.J. Lerma also limned “M-A-R-I-A V. T-I-A-N-C-O”. The space between Maria V. and Tianco features a medallion flanked by half figures. The late 19th century book “Handbook of Ornament” by Franz Sales Meyer (First edition: Carlsruhe, 1888; Fourth Edition: Carlsruhe 1892) says about the half figure: “From Antique times up to the present day, Half figures have been popular as startings for ornaments…below the breast or stomach, often defined by a girdle, there is developed a sort of inverted foliage cup, from which the scroll ornament grows.”

 

Both “J-O-S-E M J L-E-R-M-A” and “M-A-R-I-A V T-I-A-N C-O” are bordered with an elaborate interlacement of bands.

 

Lot 69 of the Leon Gallery auction on 11 June 2016. For more details, please see leon-gallery.com/v2/gallery/AuctionData-23-Spectacular-Mi...

Done