Graciously accepting the award, Zobel de Ayala expressed gratitude that:

… our family built roots in the Philippines through businesses that were established in 1834, when our country was within the banner of Spain…

We have used the Ayala Museum to learn about various aspects of Filipino- Spanish heritage. This includes trans-Pacific trade routes that made Manila a commercial and cultural hub at the time to the indelible, yet profound, mark that Spanish architecture, art, textiles, language and religious imagery have made to our nation’s identity. The Ayala Museum is just one portion of a much larger commitment of our family and company to be meaningful contributors to the developmental needs of the Philippines.

We remain active in various philanthropic engagements through the Ayala Foundation, implementing several projects on inclusive and sustainable livelihood, education and youth empowerment.

Other Zobel family members graced the glorious occasion. Monica Zobel de Ayala shared how moved she was watching her brother Fernando receive the award and listening to his speech about the importance of the arts in their family. “It is an incredible honour to receive this award from the Hispanic Society,” she enthused. Mencía Figueroa, the society’s dynamic director of public relations, programs and special events who planned the evening’s impeccable ceremony, cocktails and dinner, noted how the 2023 Gala was their most successful and geographically diverse to date, “recognising honorees from the Philippines, for the first time, Cuba, Spain and more”. She continued, “The honorees reflect the museum’s vast collection, touching on nearly every region and aspect of Hispanic culture.”

The Sorolla Medal is named after the renowned Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863–1923), whose works are robustly represented in the Hispanic Society’s collections. Among Sorolla’s most magnificent and memorable works in the society’s collection is After the Bath. Painted in 1908, Sorolla portrays a summer scene at a Valencian beach; the work was first exhibited at the Hispanic Society in 1909. Known as the Spanish “painter of light”, Sorolla influenced the Filipino painter Fernando Amorsolo’s preoccupation with tropical sunlight. Sorolla’s masterful rendering of wet fabric clinging to the young woman’s body is another technique Amorsolo sought to emulate in his paintings of women bathing. Note also the straw hat that will often feature in Amorsolo’s pastoral paintings of farmers or fightingcock owners. Notably, Amorsolo’s study visits to Spain and the US were sponsored by Enrique Zobel de Ayala, father of the late artist Fernando Zobel. Other masterpieces in the museum’s collections include Francisco de Goya’s famous portrait of the Duchess of Alba (1797) and key works by Diego Velasquez.

Read also: National Artist trivia: Who was Fernando Amorsolo?

Sorolla was among the most famous Spanish artists of his time and a close friend of the wealthy philanthropist, scholar and collector Archer Milton Huntington, who founded the Hispanic Society in 1904. Huntington passionately assembled the rare manuscripts and documents in the society’s library and the remarkable artworks in the museum. The Hispanic Museum and Library, considered the most important collection of Hispanic art and manuscripts in the US, is housed in a 1908 Beaux Arts building in upper Manhattan. Filipinists and Latin Americanists eagerly make the pilgrimage to New York City’s Washington Heights neighbourhood to study the library’s rare collections of 16th- to-19thcentury documents, including accounts of the Spanish missions in China and the Philippines (1635-1742) and early printed books produced by missionaries in China and the Philippines in collaboration with Chinese and Filipino woodblock carvers.

Of particular interest to scholars studying the material culture of the transpacific trade are rare Hispano-Philippine ivory sculptures such as those portraying the Virgin Mary and St Joseph with the Child Jesus. A massive Manila galleon chest used to ship luxury goods across the Pacific is made of narra wood carved with graceful floral and zoomorphic designs. Prized trophies of trade throughout the Spanish empire, these prestigious chests contained export goods such as the famed mantones de Manila. The museum has one of the largest collections of silk shawls manufactured in China and transshipped through the Manila galleons for the Latin American market and beyond. Early examples in the museum include shawls embroidered with large camellias and portrayals of Chinese scenes. An extremely rare example is a delicate white shawl embroidered with Chinese figures wearing traditional clothing, lavishly inset with painted ivory faces on both sides of the fabric.

Read also: Ayala Museum collaborates with the Asian Civilisations Museum to mount an exhibition on Manila Galleon

In today’s globalised world, it is heartwarming that our Filipino business and cultural leaders are recognised at the highest levels of the international artistic community for meritorious contributions to heritage preservation and nation-building, raising the Philippine flag ever higher and prouder at home and abroad. The Hispanic Society’s significant collections of Spanish, Latin American and Philippine materials make it an essential institution for Filipinos to get to know better. A must-see next time you are in the Big Apple.

The Hispanic Society Museum and Library. Broadway between 155th and 156th Streets, New York, NY 10032. Admission is accessible to the Museum, Library Reading Room, and all special exhibitions at The Hispanic Society.

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