Procesion en un pueblo de las cercanias de Manila [Procession in a Village near Manila]

Description

hand-coloured lithograph, EXTREMELY RARE – this image has not come on the market for decades.

Magnificent view of Sta. Ana, from the impossible to find “Album Filipino-Trajes y costumbres de Manila y sus cercanias”, A mid-19th Century Procession at Santa Ana. A half-kilometer long procession is going round the wide approach to Santa Ana Church, the present Plaza Calderon, cheerful with fiesta arches, banners on windows, hot air balloons, and undoubtedly, exploding fireworks. Images are on elaborate processional platforms (andas) carried on the shoulders of males devotees. The final image, Nstra. Sra. de los Desamparados, is borne under an elaborate baldaccino. The procession appears to be midway on a second circuit around the plaza. Men on horseback lead the procession, followed by sacristans bearing a processional cross and candlesticks (ceriales). Well-dressed residents-Spaniards and mestizos in European clothing and Filipinos in barong tagalog and baro’t saya with tapis – walk with images, line the route, and watch the center. People kneel as the image of the Virgin passes. A band ends the procession, its members in formal frock coats.