CV. The Agony in the Garden, Part One: The Survey

Next to The Fall of Christ - Ang Pagkarapâ ng Panginoon (see the four-part series beginning here), my favorite Holy Week processional tableau has got to be that of the First Sorrowful Mystery, The Agony in the Garden, or, as rendered rather less dramatically in Tagalog, Ang Panalangin sa Hálamanán.

This is probably because when I was a schoolboy in short pants in the 1970’s, my grandfather would take me along every year to the Holy Wednesday and Good Friday processions in our home parish in Barasoain, Malolos, Bulacan to walk with candle in hand behind or beside the antique tableau of The Agony in the Garden owned by his friend Mr. Maximo Valenzuela (founder of the then-thriving Café Valenzuela chain of restaurants) and his family.

This featured an appropriately agonized-looking Christ

and a small near-toddler-age Angel perched on a cloud, delivering a chalice to partially relieve the Lord’s thirst, as implied by the Scripture narrative (“An angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him.” – Luke 22:43).

(While the angel in particular had been in need of restoration when I took the above photos some years ago, I am pleased to report that the images had been restored since, as can be seen in the following more recent photograph – even the angel’s boots appear to have been regilded and the previously crooked chalice straightened.)

So after we brought out a new image of Saint Martha in procession in my Aunts'parish in Violeta Village, guiguinto, Bulacan beginning in Holy Week 2004 (see the five-part series beginning here), our thoughts turned to commissioning a processional tableau of The Agony in the Garden for the same parish, especially as we noted that there was no such tableau in the line-up yet.

Therefore shortly after Holy Week 2004, I consulted our by-now regular religious image maker, Mr. Kiko Vecin, about the possibility of commissioning such a processional tableau. He then asked me to give some thought as to what sort of Agony in the Garden we wanted.

Until then, I was not even aware that there could be any variations here – how could there be? So Kiko lent me several photos from his extensive picture collection, and let me have them for a few weeks. These were quite revelatory.

For starters, while most angels of the Agony in the Garden were indeed depicted as children, as in these photos from Kiko’s picture collection of antique tableaux from Baclayon, Bohol

or Daet, Camarines Norte

or Albay province (either Legazpi or Tabaco – the provenance is not certain)

or Saint Andrew’s Cathedral in Paranaque

or Banga, Aklan (courtesy of the Akyat-Bahay correspondent in that town)

or San Pablo, Laguna, formerly in the Vecin Collection

then acquired by the Villa Escudero Collection

and now on display in its Museum (on an incongruous chariot-style silver carroza) when not in procession,

there was always the possibility of using a more grown-up Angel, as tradition even has it that it was none other than the Archangel Gabriel that came to strengthen the Lord in His Agony.

Thus, a fair number of processional tableaux feature an “adult” Angel, as I saw in Kiko Vecin’s picture collection, including the one in Kawit, Cavite

and the old one from Makati Poblacion, with raised heel even, but no longer used in procession today,

and its new, rather more static-looking replacement,

and the old one from San Pablo, Laguna, likewise no longer brought out in procession,

and this graceful composition from San Fernando, Pampanga.

My own photographic expeditions revealed more adult angels for the Agony in the Garden, for instance the antique one in the Malolos Cathedral

and the newish tableau in Bayan, San Rafael, Bulacan

and the beautiful pathos-filled antique set in Angat, Bulacan

and the very classical-looking one made of “pasta madera” (composite wood paste material) imported from Spain, likely in the early 20^th century, for the Lipa Cathedral in Batangas,

and another one from Banga, Aklan,

and a small tabletop version in 19^th-century “Beaux-Arts” style, complete with wildly-flared wings for the Angel,

and finally an intensely devotional tabletop version, this time in ivory and with its metal plate still intact, clearly indicating its origin, the Manila workshop of early 20^th century maker Cayetano Castillo.

Apart from the choice of whether to employ a child or an adult Angel, there was the question of whether to invite Apostles as well, for Scripture says that Peter, James, and John were with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. (“He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled.” – Matthew 26:37)

Of course, the narrative later has the Disciples fall asleep, but that is easily used as a point of interest in composing this processional tableau, as a number of examples show. For example, the tableau in the Malolos Cathedral actually has the three sleeping Apostles in the front part of the staging,

although they appear to be newer additions that are not as well-rendered as the Christ and Angel and are even fully-carved rather than separately dressed like most other processional images in the Philippines.

One of the two tableaux in Banga, Aklan also features a Saint Peter positioned behind the Christ, complete with emblematic rooster, and, rather unusually, facing the rear of the carroza, seated at a lower level than might be expected.

The James and John unaccounted for, and are probably asleep elsewhere.

Another example is this one from Baliwag, Bulacan, with three soundly-sleeping apostles in the foreground,

but with no Angel, neither adult nor child. This being Baliwag, the angel can be seen in other tableaux in the same processional line-up of the same scene (one of which is in the left background in the above photo), together with several other alternative renderings of the Agony in the Garden with only minute variations from each other, in a move to be “all-inclusive” as it were (and result in ever-lengthening line-ups each year).

I even came across a small tabletop version of the three sleeping Apostles, now offered for sale in an antique shop, but with the Christ and Angel no longer around.

Another fundamental choice had to do with the Christ. While the convention is to depict Him on His knees, with hands clasped together in prayer – for that is what Scripture says (“He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed.” – Luke 22:41), the title of the scene in English cues the artist to depict the Christ in greater agony than mere contemplative praying would cause.

In this vein, some tableaux in the Philippines show Him fainting, only held up by the (usually adult) Angel, including this one attributed to the mid-20^th century sculptor M. Pandes of Santa Cruz, Manila that I saw offered for sale in an antique shop.

The Christ is clearly in agony, and the Angel takes pity on Him and supports him from behind.

An even more masterful rendition of the fainting variety is one from the early 20^th century made by Benigno Santos Senior (father of the mid-century master sculptor Santiago “Mantiago” and his brother the master encarnador Benigno “Baning” Santos Junior), showing the Angel supporting the fainting Christ from the front and side.

This tableau is reportedly still owned by the sculptor’s descendants and brought out in procession in its original parish in Quiapo, Manila. Here it is in another photo from the Vecin Picture Collection, taken in the owners’ home and showing it in close-up.

And here it is undressed, to show how the master sculptor executed the angling of the bodies of the Christ and the Angel for appropriate dynamic effect.

With so many choices to make and so much variety to consider, I thought it best to step back and take a break, which is what we will do now.

(Continued here.)

Originally published on 26 September 2010.  All text and photos (except as otherwise attributed) copyright ©2010 by Leo D Cloma. The moral right of Leo D Cloma to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.

Original comments:

t1goy07 wrote on Sep 27, '10 Christ did not fall but man did (adam) Christ fulfilled the promise of God that He will redeem his own through Christ... Christ was victorious, He died for me to be a ransom(surety) for my sins...

rally65 wrote on Sep 27, '10 What a profound reminder. Thanks very much for the visit.

arcastro57 wrote on Sep 27, '10 San Fernando's Manalangin gets my vote. Followed by the Agony from Daet, with that tiny angel by Christ's side, who seems to be a bit askance.

raflaydo wrote on Sep 27, '10 Thanks for this wonderful post. I distinctly remember the Lipa Cathedral Agony years years back. As a child, looking at it gave me the shivers. All the best!

rally65 wrote on Sep 27, '10 Thanks for the visits and the votes. Let's see which of your candidates wins!