Through his portraits, Claudio Bravo captured the opulence that fuelled the turbulence of an era
This feature story was originally titled as Bravo in Manila, and was published in the September 2012 issue of Tatler Philippines
Renowned the world over for the unique blend of hyperrealist and baroque Spanish-influenced art, Claudio Bravo was born on 8 November 1936 in the coastal town of Valparaíso, Chile. Largely self-taught, he displayed an early precocity for the arts, when as a young boy he badgered his friends and classmates to pose for his pencil drawings.
In his teens he spent his spare time fraternising with older artists and intellectuals, imbibing the bohemian life. At 17, he presented his first solo art show at Taller 14 in his hometown, helped by close friends. He performed as a dancer for the Compañía de Ballet de Chile and did occasional stints as an actor at the Teatro Ensayo of the Universidad Católica de Chile.
Like his contemporary Francis Bacon, he resettled in the ‘60s in Madrid, where he had fallen in love with the Spanish baroque painters prominently displayed at the Prado Museum. He admired the works of Diego Velázquez, Juan Sánchez Cotán and Francisco de Zurbarán with whom his own work shared a common aesthetic and technical virtuosity. In Madrid he achieved fame for society portraits that were done with astounding verisimilitude, executing over 300 works in less than eight years.
In 1968 Bravo accepted an invitation from President Ferdinand E Marcos to visit the country and paint him and his wife, Imelda, who first saw one of his virtuosic portraits on the Christmas card of Don Jaime Zóbel de Ayala.
It was a watershed year in Philippine life and society. Marcos was on the verge of winning a landmark re-election with the help of his running mate, Vice President Ferdinand “Nanding” López, brother of Eugenio “Eñing” López, then considered the richest man in Philippine history. The Lópezes owned the most influential media, including the leading television station, 22 radio stations, the newspaper Manila Chronicle, as well as the lucrative electrical monopoly Meralco. They were the kingmakers and the power behind Marcos’ consolidation of political power.
The Lópezes’ ascendance to the top of the political and economic hierarchy was captured in what was dubbed as the most opulent event of the century.
In January 1968 Don Eñing and Doña Pacita “Nitang” López held their fabled ruby wedding anniversary where Dom Pérignon flowed out of a fountain made of Murano glass. A cast of royal nobility—Prince Alfonso de Borbón and Baron Hans Heinrich “Heini” Thyssen-Bornemisza of the famed museum—and international jetsetters—including the Agnellis of Fiat fame and Christina Ford—flown in from Europe, Asia and North America trooped to the López mansion in Parañaque.
That night as President Marcos and Imelda celebrated the two families’ alliance amidst the realities of crushing poverty and a general breakdown in civil society. There was no talk of “oligarchs,” the “First Quarter Storm” or Martial Law and little to indicate that the Lópezes and Marcoses would be parting ways in less than four years and rewriting the pages of Philippine history.
Against this backdrop, the Chilean artist went diligently to work in Manila from January to June of 1968, being referred from one prominent society figure to another.