阿爾費雷多·艾斯奇洛二世

This work is in good condition overall, as is the canvas, which is clear and taut. There is light wear and handling around the edges of the painting. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals no evidence of restoration. Unframed, on a stretcher.
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Duality is a persistent theme in Alfredo Esquillo’s body of works. Art is a platform for him to explore the push and pull forces between mortal yearning and spiritual salvation. While Esquillo’s works may incorporate scenes of apocalyptic doom, they are firmly grounded in what he perceives as earthly wisdom. Deeply ingrained in the conceptual formation of his paintings is a distinctively Filipino spirit.

In The Triumph of Ms. I, Esquillo depicts a house that has been bisected into two opposing worlds dictated by binary pairs: gloom and light, snare and flight, thorn and bloom, hell and heaven. Familiar emblems such as a hand speaker, flaming heart with roses, archangel wings, doves made of hands and devil’s tentacles are discernible. The protagonist is a young Filipino woman whose body has been split into writhing agony on the left and spiritual revelation on the right. One descends and the other ascends. Despite the circumstances of the environment, the woman and her counterpart are completely unscathed and unaffected. Rather, a quiet resolve reigns in both worlds.

Esquillo’s work possesses an uncanny semblance to the Assumption of Mary, where the Virgin emerges triumphantly and unmarred by earthly temptation. Similarly, the protagonist’s stoic expression recalls saints whose earthly bodies, albeit pierced by arrows, still signal a compliant acceptance of their fate in their beseeching eyes. Esquillo’s rendition is thus a pagan interpretation of resurrection: the figure here submerges from pain and rises to joy—her countenance not far removed from ours.

The Triumph of Ms. I is a profound introspection into the faltering shifts between temptation and redemption. The painting demonstrates the artist’s astute understanding of how it is to sin, atone and hope for deliverance. Despite the heavy subject matter, Esquillo’s interpretation is indubitably contemporary and surprisingly light-hearted, elevating his audience to a transcended but not an entirely unreachable place.