Melizze Beth Pacinos PBM-A86 Contemporary Philippine Arts from the Regions Philip Hermogenes Calderon (1833–1898), Broken Vows (1856) Philip Hermogenes Calderon was born in Poitiers, France (May 3,1833). Calderon planned to study engineering, but he became so interested in drawing technical figures and diagrams that he changed his mind and devoted his time to art. He was studying at Leigh’s Academy in 1850. At Leigh’s he started painting, mainly from life. He then went to study in Paris at the atelier of Monsieur Picot, a Membre de l’Institute, the equivalent of an Academician. Here he was not permitted to paint, being compelled to draw from the model, the result required being perfectly accurate from head to toe. This basis of sound draughtsmanship served him well throughout his distinguished career. On his return from France Calderon painted “By the Waters of Babylon”, which was a success at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1852. Strangely he did not follow this up quickly, and for the next five years painted mainly portraits. In 1857 he exhibited at the RA again, this time the picture was Broken Vows. The “Broken Vows” is a type of oil painting that uses pigment with a medium of drying oil as the binder and it was painted in a canvass. It has an organic shape, the human body. Calderon used some dark colors for the shadows of the woman and the wall to show the direction of the sunlight. He used different colors in the painting to show the intensity and value of a hue. There are many types of pattern that was shown in the painting. The wall shows the bricks as a pattern and the door has a vertical pattern, and the dress of the woman has a pattern of leaves. Calderon emphasised the woman by putting her in the right side of the wall. Melizze Beth Pacinos PBM-A86 Contemporary Philippine Arts from the Regions The main idea of the painting is that the woman, wearing a wedding ring, eyes closed, clutching an area on her chest to indicate that her love life is in trouble, discovering that her lover, whose initials are carved in the fence, has been unfaithful. On the ground near the hem of her dress is a discarded necklace or ‘charm’ bracelet and dying flowers, indicate her unhappy situation. The ivy-covered wall behind her would possibly indicate her belief of lasting love, which was probably her aspiration. The woman was described as being in “an agony of despair.” I find the painting as a successful artwork. The love of nature was casting out the love of conventionalism, and this was shown in the detail of leaf and flower, rock and stone, and sunlight and sun-shadows. The painting is another problem picture. This type of theme is popular for viewers to unravel the situation and interpret the painting from the symbols and expressions of the characters.
