Ca 1882-89 / Design by Agustin Saez, with execution and improvements by Isabelo Tampinco and collaborators

Possibly the finest example of a carved church interior, of whatever artistic style or period, in the Philippines is that of the 19th-century Church of San Ignacio in Intramuros, Manila. Whereas carved decorations in most churches were concentrated on the retablos (wall-like structures with sections for religious images) and altars, pulpits, doors, and Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross), those of San Ignacio not only elaborated on these but also dominated the galleries, door frames, columns, and ceilings. Since the entire work was conceived as a whole, the resulting unity of style and consistency of quality mark it as a masterpiece in the history of Philippine sculpture.

Work on the interior may have been started in 1882 or 1883, a few years after the cornerstone was laid in 1878. Glimpses of the interior must have been so impressive that even though construction was still ongoing, plans, samples, and models of the church and its decoration were requested by the government in Dec 1886 to be sent to the Madrid Exposition of 1887; more examples were sent to the Exposicion Universal in Barcelona in 1888. The carved works of art exhibited in these fairs garnered for Tampinco a silver and a gold medal, respectively. Although popularly attributed to Tampinco and his associates, credit for the ornamental design must be given to Saez, director of the Academia de Dibujo and professor of drawing at Ateneo Municipal. The major source on the San Ignacio Church, which is an illustrated commemorative album published a year after its inauguration, reserves the last and major portion of its acknowledgements to Saez, the Spaniard who conceived the interior in “Graeco-Roman” style. To Saez are specifically assigned the plans for the pulpit and the main altar. From the hand of his compatriot Jose Fuentes came the designs for the two side altars. Subsequent Filipino authors claim, however, that Tampinco improved on the design so excellently that they could very well be called his own.

For the Jesuit church, 50-60 workers and wood-carvers were employed, including Tampinco’s brother-in-law Crispulo Jocson, Manuel Flores, Mariano Siauinco, Gaspar Bautista, Pedro Nepomuceno, and a master of detail known only as Luis. The pulpit was crafted by Flores and Jocson; from Flores’s chisel came the images of San Ignacio de Loyola and the Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, while from Jocson’s emerged that of the Inmaculada Concepcion. Tampinco spent six or seven years executing this obra maestra (masterpiece), and in the end sent a bill to the Jesuits for 26,086 pesos.

Upon entering the church, one felt transported, as M.M. Norton waxed poetic in 1915, “to the rich and ornate of Europe, in some capital where the cultured worship” (Manuel 1955). Columns of reinforced concrete faced with fluted carved hardwood, resting on white marble plinths and topped by composite capitals, formed a pair of colonnades flanking both sides of the nave. In between the arches spanning the colonnades were medallions in high relief portraying Jesuit saints. Beginning from one’s left, these were San Luis Gonzaga, San Estanislao Kostka, San Francisco Javier, San Alfonso Rodriguez, San Pedro Claver, San Francisco de Geronimo, San Juan Francisco Regis, and San Francisco de Borja. Resting on the colonnades was a gallery, also sporting fluted columns. One’s eye was then drawn to the magnificent artesonado (coffered ceiling)—that is, the ceiling was divided into rectangular trays, each with a series of recessed squares or casetones in the manner of today’s egg cartons. Each square, bordered by braided bands encircling flowers, featured an arrangement of acanthus leaves.

Over the crossing, where a dome was usually constructed, was an octagonal inner space inserted into a rectangular area; within the eight panels were 10 portrait medallions for each of the original companions who with San Ignacio de Loyola founded the Society of Jesus. The palm and oak motifs framing these and other bas-relief symbolized the victory and fortitude of the Jesuit saints. The four corners of this part of the ceiling featured the evangelists. The ceiling over the main altar boasted a dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, from which radiated shafts of light. Javellana (1991) conjectures that Tampinco rightly took advantage of the church’s Easternly orientation, because of which highlights were accentuated and shadows deepened: “His coffered ceiling was best appreciated when morning light filtered through the choir windows and portals of the church. It was at that time of day too when students and other worshippers entered the church because it was the customary time for public worship.” Indeed, the entire ceiling was so lavishly endowed with carved bands of flowers, circles, grooves, scrolls, and leaves that it is not difficult imagining worshippers engrossed in this heaven gazing.

The pulpit featured two large reliefs, the subjects of which were the Descent of the Holy Spirit and the Great Commission to Spread the Gospel, flanked by three narrower ones representing Faith, Hope, and Charity. On the gradually curving staircase leading to the pulpit were images in relief of the Four Evangelists and San Pedro. Not to be outdone was the underside of the staircase, which was fully carved along the lines of the artesonado ceiling. The pulpit, as with most of the woodwork in the church, was finished with a thin layer of varnish to enhance the panels’ natural colors.

The main and side altars were realized according to the neoclassical style. Accordingly these were conceived more along architectural, three-dimensional lines than those of the previous planar, baroque-retablo types. Tall fluted Corinthian columns flanked the images in the niches and supported pediments emblazoned with more reliefs, angels, and symbolic figures. These altars of hardwood rested on white Carrara marble bases, imported from and partially carved in Italy and finished in Manila by the Spanish artist Francisco Rodoreda. His firm’s lapidas or tomb markers can still be seen in many old churches.

The magnificent treasure-house of wood carving that was San Ignacio disappeared in flames when it was bombed by US airplanes in 1945.

No better epitaph has been written than that by E. Arsenio Manuel: “When San Ignacio Church was completed, wood carving as an art reached its zenith of development in the Island during the Spanish period … For after its completion no structure ever excelled or equated its interior in its exquisite conception, ornate execution, and even in its artistic unity” (Manuel 1955).