Angono artists to depict Pedro Calungsod in paintings

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No one knows how he really looks like, but by September, über talented Angono artists will show what Blessed Pedro Calungsod looks like through their eyes in some fifty to seventy paintings come September.

Members from the promotions team of the National Commission for the Canonization of Bl. Pedro Calungsod meet Angono Mayor Gerardo Caldero for initial discussions about partnering with the Angono artists.

“Walang mukha si Pedro Calungsod. Kaya kayo nandiyan para ipakita ang hitsura niya for the next centuries, [Pedro Calungsod has no face. That’s why you are there, to show his likeness for the next centuries,]” Clarke Nebrao, who heads the promotions and merchandise team for Calungsod’s canonization, told the artists in a meeting yesterday at the Blanco Family Museum in Angono.

“Pango” and “on the move”

Relaying directives from Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, chairman of the National Commission of the Canonization of Pedro Calungsod, Nebrao asked the artists to portray Calungsod who died in 1672 as “very Filipino” and “always on the move.”

Nebrao said that Cardinal Vidal imagined the young missionary Calungsod as dynamic and always moving.

One physical feature Calungsod would have is the very Filipino “pango” nose or flat nose as most Filipinos have. Definitely, Nebrao said Calungsod will not be depicted as European-looking.

He also encouraged the artists to show him wearing “bakya” (thick, wooden shoes), which he most probably wore considering the Marianas Islands, where Calungsod did much of his missionary work had rugged terrain.

Paintings on tour

Ten to twelve 2 x 3 feet paintings will accompany Bl. Pedro’s image from his canonization in Rome on October 21 to the “Duaw Nasud”, a pilgrimage visit of the image to several dioceses in the Philippines.

The paintings will also be exhibited during the National Thanksgiving in Cebu on November 30 as its last stop.

The fifty to seventy 16 x 20 inch smaller paintings, aside from being published in a coffee table book on Calungsod like the bigger paintings, will be auctioned off with proceeds going to the artists.

According to Angono Department of Tourism cultural officer Patnubay Tiamzon, some fifty to a hundred artists will be involved in froms several Angono artists’ groups like the Angono Ateliers, Angono Artists’ Association, the University of Rizal System – Angono and the Neo Angono Artists. [Nirva’ana Ella Delacruz]