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Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Nudes and the angelic from axes power
By Ritchie Landis Doner Quijano
In written art history Dante Guidetti is one artist that got away. He’s not entirely forgotten, but ironically, his name is absent in published materials, when in fact, his works are perennially present because of their lasting quality whether they’re in stone or concrete.
Guidetti is a sculptor in the classical tradition credited to have brought and introduced classical sculpture to Cebuanos in the 1930s.
He was an Italian expatriate whose studio stood in Colon during the pre-war years. His workshop was at first situated where Lane theater now stands, before it transferred to its last known location at the other tip of Colon, near the obelisk marker. Two of the Italian master’s students were Jovito Abellana and another named Yrastorza, the latter’s first name has yet to be established by this writer. In the '30s, two of Cebu’s premier movie houses were decorated by Guidetti with high relief sculptures. The facades of Cine Magallanes and Vision Theater were both adorned by his masterpieces that exhibited nude figures from mythology. Back then, Guidetti’s nudes faced opposition and scandalized the predominantly pious populace and religious sectors of Cebuano society. But today, only the nude reliefs on Vision theater have survived. Cine Magallanes is no longer there, on its site stands Bionic hardware.
My source recalled that the nudes adorning Cine Magallanes were most sensual and their boldness stirred-up a hornet’s nest. It caused religious processions in the past to take a detour, following another street, preventing people at worship from gazing at them. There’s also an interesting anecdote about Guidetti and his male students’ naughty yet amusing habit when practicing and executing nude subjects.
Employing nude models to pose at his studio, the sculptor artistically arranged the pubic hair of the young girls to make their sketches more realistic and natural.
But apart from Guidetti’s nudes he did as well the ethereal and saintly.
Subjects that are particularly pleasing to the church hierarchy. He carved this lovely angel (circa 1932) from marble to guard the grave of Manuel Yrastorza inside the Asociacion Benefica Española de Cebu plot at the old Carreta Catholic Cemetery. The angel is housed in a Gothic-inspired canopy supported by slender columns and complete with spires. On its marble base you’ll find the artist’s engraved signature and address (Est. Italiano, Prof.
Dante Guidetti, Calle Mabini 92-94 Cebu). Using imported white marble from Carrara, Italy, this angel now stands as one of the finest marble sculptures in the province, though its wings were partially damaged because the place was strafed by Japanese fighter planes in WW2. The wings have since been repaired.
Another fine example of his craft is the Osmeña Mausoleum at San Miguel, pupils Abellana and Yrastorza collaborated with their teacher in completing the work. Master Guidetti also made the Cristo Rey of the Carcar church plaza. A missing Guidetti sculpture which I am still trying to locate at the moment is the Boy Scout statue that used to stand on the grounds of the Boy Scout Headquarters along Osmeña blvd.
The headquarters’ building has since been demolished and I can only hope that the missing sculpture wasn’t destroyed along with it.
The Italian expatriate master stayed in Cebu for more than a decade. Nearing the start of WW2 he was called back to serve his country and fought as a major in the Italian army. Incidentally, during the war, Vision theater, adorned with the work of the Axis artist, became the Usaffe headquarters in the Visayas. Italy then was part of the Axis powers together with Germany and Japan, so Guidetti categorically was our enemy during the last great war. He never came back and when peace finally came to Europe, we never heard from him again.
(November 18, 2003 issue)
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