The country’s premier auction house for European fine art, Casa de Memoria, featured several religious pieces in its 12th auction held recently.
The highest-selling lot of the auction was a late 19th-century Hispano-Filipino Crucifix with Ivory Cristo Expirante. It depicts a dramatic image of the Cristo Expirante or the dying Christ mounted on a graded cross decorated with silver cantoneros at the edges and intricate silver rays behind the polychrome ivory body of Christ. At the bottom part of the cross is a faded gilding of a skull, the symbol of Golgotha.
Another stunning religious artwork that went under the hammer was the Holy Land Crucifix in olive wood and mother-of-pearl. Hailing from Jerusalem, this Terra Santa crucifix features the Cristo Expirante in metal. Its cross is made of olive wood with iridescent mother-of-pearl carvings and inlays.
Aside from unique altar centerpieces, the auction also featured religious paintings dating back to 18th century Europe.
One of the artworks was a European school painting in oil on canvas, enclosed in a silver-toned wooden frame. The painting showed the Madonna and Child holding a bunch of grapes, symbolic of the Eucharistic wine.
Another featured painting was the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The Italian school oil on canvas painting was enclosed in a profusely-carved giltwood frame. The image portrays the Blessed Virgin carrying the child Jesus on her lap, holding the left hand of Saint Catherine, while Jesus offers the latter a ring, a symbolic act of spiritual grace conferment.
Another fascinating lot sold at the auction was a set of bronze medals of the Holy Family and the 12 apostles. The 14 Portuguese commemorative bronze metals were dated to the 1970s. Two of these were signed by Cabral Antunes and depicts reliefs of the St. Joseph with the child Jesus and the Madonna and Child. Inscribed at the back of both medals is a poem by Portuguese lyricist Antonio Sousa Freitas. The rest of the set features the 12 apostles and their iconography while the reverse has inscriptions related to each of them.
Casa de Memoria showroom is at Jupiter Street, Makati City.