Collection worth sharing

THERE are two new galleries at the University of San Carlos Museum and these house the precious antiques collected by Rosita Arcenas, banker and real estate developer, who collected these items since the 1950s. The galleries are “Handumanan” which houses her collection of saints, and “Bahandi” for her collection of Chinese and Southeast Asian Ceramics.

The galleries are beautifully curated by Arcenas’ son, film/stage director, designer, writer Loy Arcenas. Handumanan has over a hundred artifacts mostly in wood of various saints and other religious items and some religious paintings. The most striking item in this exhibit is the life-size statue of a half-fallen Jesus being scourged at the pillar by two soldiers at his back, titled “El Señor Desmayado” which, assistant curator Lyrech Ibale said, is brought to Bantayan for the Holy Week procession. This was sculpted by a Bantayan sculptor, Ma. Piyano Carrabio.

Mrs. Arcenas has over 500 ceramic artifacts, from pre-colonial Philippines, including Philippine earthenware dating back from the year 500 AD to 1400 AD.—most of them now in Bahandi. The Chinese and Southeast Asian ceramics date back to the 11th century, with artifacts from the Song Dynasty. Ibale points to a table showcase belonging to the USC museum that explains why these ceramics survived: the outline figure of a human being with a real skull at the head, is surrounded by ceramic pieces. According to Ibale, the ancient burial practice was to cover the face and pubic area of the deceased with plates. Surrounding the body would be smaller plates, jarlets and other stuff which were to accompany the dead in his journey in the afterlife.

Being in these galleries makes people think back to the times when plastic utensils did not exist and tableware were prized possessions and were well taken care of, and to a time when religion was very much a part of man’s daily existence; religious observances being an essential part of a Filipino’s day to day living. Visiting a museum allows people to look back to the past, to see how far man has gone since those bygone years; how much he has gained and perhaps also, how much he has lost.