Consider the challenge of designing a Catholic Church’s retablo or apse, the semi-circular wall paneling where the crucified Christ and the altar are located.
While it must convey God’s divine kingship, it must also speak of the humility shown by Christ, or the patron saint being honored by the parish.
Liturgical designer Antonio “Tony” Adriano has designed 44 retablos around Metro Manila for the past 20 years. He gained recognition in 1995 for designing the papal throne that John Paul II used at the Mass marking the end of World Youth Day at the Quirino Grandstand.
All of Adriano’s designs are pro bono, apparently because they are not solely his.
“I pray for inspiration from the Holy Spirit. Every time I hold a drafting pen and paper, the image comes out automatically, no matter what. It’s a gift, a special grace,” Adriano told Inquirer Lifestyle.
For his services, the designer has been given the papal award for exemplary service, the highest distinction given by the Church for laymen.
Adriano comes from a family of entrepreneurs that was the toast of furniture makers in turn-of-the-century Manila. Grandfather Simplicio began with a modest atelier on M. H. Del Pilar in Ermita in 1911. Son Avelino, Adriano’s father, inherited the business.
It was Avelino who carved the brand name “A.G. Adriano,” which specialized in high class Western-type furniture. During its heyday, the shop along Edsa always had a guest or two who hailed from the nearby exclusive enclaves in Makati City.
Online orders
The third generation Adriano is still engaged in the furniture business. There is a factory in Pampanga, but rather than display his products in a brick-and-mortar store, he receives online orders and accepts mostly clients recommended by people he knows.
Designing retablos for free is a panata or sacred vow. “I grew up in church,” Adriano explained.
The designer refers to Ermita Church or the Archdiocesan Shrine of Nuestra Señora de Guia inside the compound where the old A.G. Adriano factory was previously located.
His mother, the late Rosario So-Adriano, took care of the priests’ daily needs. Young Antonio grew up playing children’s games with the church as his perennial backdrop.
“Our house was a virtual extension of the rectory,” he recalled.
Adriano said his father was the one who instilled discipline in him and older siblings Mariano, Ricardo, Carmelita and Florence. Everyone was expected to help out in the furniture factory during summer breaks.
Adriano remembers learning simple carpentry, sweeping sawdust and picking up a steel nail or two while classmates enjoyed their vacation. “I earned P850 a month,” he recalled.
Avelino would also bring the young Antonio to Forbes Park to meet with clients, including Jaime Zobel de Ayala and the Ortigas family.
“My father was also schooled in the liturgical arts and used it to create furniture, retablos and church interiors. He would bring me along to meet people. That was how I learned to appreciate his work. He had charisma, a magic touch that connected with the client,” the son said.
After completing an undergraduate course on fine arts majoring in interior design, Adriano was allowed to travel freely as part of the family enterprise.
Trips to Europe, most often in the Montparnasse district of Paris, became de rigueur as he was trained to scout for fine materials for furniture and escort clients who wanted to be hands-on in choosing what fabrics to go with their chairs.
Although Adriano was later formally schooled in liturgical design in the Archdiocese of Manila, his first foray in creating a retablo began at age 20, with that of Ermita Church next door.
Apprehensive
He was confident he could do the job. After all, he had seen how his father executed his designs numerous times before.
“The priest was apprehensive but I stood my ground,” said Adriano, now 65.
Solid wood supports the glass encasement holding the Señora de Guia. “The wood is bolted to the concrete wall,” he said with pride.
Adriano related the story of how one of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi’s soldiers chanced upon a group of natives worshipping a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary atop a trunk decorated with pandan leaves.
The site is where Ermita Church now stands. Adriano said the story also means that the statue is now 445 years old, and would be the oldest statue of the Virgin Mary in the country.
The designer made sure that the statue’s piyannya or pedestal features a pandan motif.
Adriano shouldered the entire cost of designing Ermita Church’s retablo. In the case of other churches, the parishes and their benefactors pay for the materials needed for his designs.
Adriano said designing a retablo is not one taken lightly. “The retablo has to follow a theme. In Ermita, for example, the design speaks of the Queenship of Mary. Pandan leaves are included in the design because of the story of how she was found,” he explained.
The shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage in Antipolo City, on the other hand, evokes the image of Mary as mother of God.
Other noteworthy churches whose retablos were touched by Adriano include Sta. Ana Church in Taguig City; Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Kamuning, Quezon City; National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Broadway, Quezon City; Santuario de San José Parish in Greenhills, San Juan and the Archbishop’s Palace in Villa San Miguel in Mandaluyong City.
“The design has to be thematic. Hindi puwede ’yung gusto mo lang gawin. There are also guidelines from the Church. The lectern and the altar should be close together because the Word of God is pronounced in the lectern and the transformation of the Body and Blood of Christ happens at the altar,” Adriano said.
“Liturgically speaking, the church has Jesus at the center with Mary and Joseph at his side. And the Cross must have a corpus,” he added.
Many of the retablos that Adriano designed feature the symbols of the Four Evangelists (“They are a recurring image”), from whose writings the daily Gospel is quoted.
St. Matthew is portrayed by a winged man; St. Mark by a winged lion; St. Luke, a winged ox and St. John, an eagle.
Among all the retablos he designed, Adriano said the one in Ermita Church will always be closest to his heart.
“All my work in Ermita is a gift of love to my parents,” Adriano said.
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