“PLANTING RICE” (1949)

By Fernando Amorsolo

 Artist

The painter Fernando Amorsolo (1892-1972) was a dominant figure in the visual
arts of the Philippines during the decades before the Second World War and into the
post-war period. Amorsolo used natural light in his paintings and developed the
backlighting technique Chiaroscuro, which became his artistic trademark and his
greatest contribution to Philippine painting. Fernando Amorsolo was best known for
his masterful illuminated landscapes and portraits. He was able to integrate the
chiaroscuro style of Renaissance art into the soul of Filipino traditional culture and
history. Fernando Amorsolo painted and sketched more than ten thousand pieces
over his lifetime using natural and backlighting techniques. His most known works are
of the dalagang Filipina, landscapes of his Filipino homeland, portraits and WWII war
scenes.

 Theme Used

Amorsolo was committed to two fundamental ideas in his art: first, a classical
notion of idealism, in which artistic truth was found through harmony, balance and
beauty, and second a conservative concept of Filipino national character as rooted in
rural communities and the cycles of village life. The two come together in pastoral
scenes such as 'Planting Rice with Mayon Volcano, painted in 1949. Here happy
Filipino villagers in their bright clothes and straw hats work together amid a green and
sunlit landscape of plenty. Behind them, releasing a peaceful plume of steam, rises the
beautifully symmetrical cone of Mayon stratovolcano. It is the ash erupted by the
volcano over its highly-active history that has made the surrounding landscape fertile,
and the tranquilcone appears here to be a beneficial spirit of the earth standing
guardian over the villagers and their crops Mayon's eruptions can be very destructive
(as in the violent eruption of 1947, not long before this picture was painted, when
pyroclastic flows and lahars brought widespread destruction and fatalities) but here
the relationship between the volcano and the surrounding landscape is depicted as a
positive, fruitful and harmonious one. Mayon is a celebrated symbol of the Philippines,
and its presence in Amorsolo's painting emphasizes his wish to represent the spirit of
the nation on canvas. "Planting Rice with Mayon Volcano" is in the collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Manila.

 Date Created

The pastoral scenes such as Planting Rice with Mayon Volcano', painted in 1949,
Here, happy Filipino villagers in their bright clothes and straw hats work together amid
a green and sunlight landscape of plenty.

 Reason why I choose the art

I choose this artwork of Fernando Amorsolo which entitled as the "Planting Rice"
because I loved its concept where it is indicating the beautiful view of the Mayon
volcano and the farmers who was helping each other in planting corpses. This artwork
is literally an extravagant by its detailed and harmoniously composed richly colored,
saturated with bright sunlight and populated with happy people. My own definition of
this artwork is beauty, contentment, peace, and plenty.