ASHS artist Josh Ong Ante paints St Ignatius in a vulnerable light

At the end of July this year, during the mass celebrating the Solemnity of St Ignatius of Loyola, The Church of the Gesù unveiled a 4 feet x 12 feet banner depicting the soldier saint in an unusual way. Instead of being shown offering his sword or penning the Spiritual Exercises, Iñigo, the former soldier and founder of the Society of Jesus, is shown convalescing from his cannonball wound while being cradled, Pieta-stye, by Jesus Christ. On the banner are the words “Oh, Señor, que sanaste el cuerpo y el alma de Ignacio, ayúdanos,” or “O Lord, who healed the body and soul of Ignatius, help us/come to our aid!”

“I wanted to show a more human, less depicted form of St Ignatius,” says the artist, 16-year-old Ateneo de Manila Senior High School (ASHS) student Josh Ong Ante of section 11-Tsuji. He adds that beyond the usual image of Ignatius offering his sword, he believes that this event from Ignatius’ life was “filled with emotion” not usually associated with the founder of the Jesuits.   

From book cover to church banner  

This is not the first time Josh has created artwork related to the Church of the Gesù. In 2022, he illustrated the cover of the book “Despite the Distance: A Book-Journal to Reflect on the Pandemic,” by Dr Miriam R Delos Santos, director of the University’s Office of Mission and Identity (OMI). The artwork depicts the Church of the Gesù during the COVID lockdown in a breezy, impressionistic watercolor style, with the Bellarmine Field’s well-known migratory egrets in the foreground. This work, done when he was in Grade 9, contributed to Josh’s selection by Church of the Gesù rector Fr Raymund Benedict “RB” Hizon SJ to create the St Ignatius banner. 

Since being appointed rector in 2023, Fr RB had been wanting to bring a more youthful vibe to the Church of the Gesù’s interiors and to engage younger people in the church’s celebrations. One day in early July, Fr RB happened to be in a car with Josh and Dr Delos Santos - who also happens to be Josh’s maternal aunt - because they had just visited Josh’s mom in the hospital. While on their way back to Ateneo, the conversation turned to art and Dr Delos Santos mentioned to Fr RB that Josh was the one who had created the artwork for her book-journal. Josh then showed Fr RB the “Despite the Distance” book cover, along with samples of his other works from his phone.

Impressed, Fr RB immediately asked Josh if he wanted to create artwork for the Gesù, giving him free rein to visualize Ignatius in any way he wanted. Josh said yes to the task of creating a large-scale digital artwork for the church. “I was very excited to do something for the Gesù because its architecture intrigues me,” says Josh. As for the proud aunt, she says, “It was so edifying to see Fr RB entrust this huge commission to someone so young. And it wasn’t just for any project…it was for the Feast of St Ignatius!”

From inspiration to execution

With less than three weeks to complete the artwork – the deadline was set for July 25 - Josh hashed out the concept. Initially, he thought he would portray Ignatius offering his sword, but changed his mind because this had been done many times. As part of his research, Josh reviewed the Jesuit Communications film “Ignacio de Loyola” three times. His attention was caught by a scene that lasted around five seconds: the scene where the vain Ignatius has the bone protruding from his leg sawed off. “It was a super short scene,” recalls Josh. “But it was one of the more chilling scenes because it’s very quiet, walang soundtrack or anything, just Ignatius and his leg. It was a very good scene and it was placed perfectly so that you really feel the impact of it.”

The scene spoke to Josh in an almost visceral way. “For me, that scene was the tipping point for St Ignatius. That was when he was most vulnerable to change because he was bedridden, he was bleeding, he was hurting. And then right after that, he found the two books—the Lives of the Saints and the Life of Jesus.”

With two weeks to go and the concept approved by Fr RB, Josh raced to finish the work, doing his best to deal with the challenges that came with the job. For one, he needed to master the Procreate app which he was using for the first time. And he was travelling with his family in Europe. He worked on the banner evenings, after a day of touring. “It was a nice time to cool off by making the piece at night,” says Josh.

Anatomy, expression, and symbolism

Josh had visited the Louvre in Paris during a previous family trip, and he remembered what struck him most about the artworks there: “What set them apart was the expression on their faces…there’s something so human about them that I really wanted to mimic.” Josh thus spent a lot of time getting the expression on Ignatius’ face just right. “I wanted to focus on his face, medyo pained yung expression niya. A lot of the expression work took a while but it was worth it because that’s what you look at first.”

Josh also studied anatomy in order to execute his work. “I’m inexperienced in this kind of portraiture and I had to study anatomy…yung una kong ginawa was yung chest ni Ignatius…I spent a lot of time on that.”

Josh says that it was also a challenge to show Ignatius topless or bare chested because he’s rarely depicted with his clothes off. “It was hard for me to get his exact build and to get a sense of the muscles,” admits Josh. “Since I wanted the piece to be original, I didn’t use much reference and it was a struggle to get the anatomy of Ignatius down.” 

Josh also made sure to add symbolic touches to the work. “See how Jesus’ hand is never touching St Ignatius? He’s just behind him? Because at the time, Ignatius had not reached out to Jesus yet. That’s why Ignatius is also looking away. He’s not looking at Jesus because he doesn’t see Him yet. That’s something I really like, something that I got giddy adding,” Josh explains.  

“It would have been really easy to depict (Jesus) embracing (Ignatius), but wait…an embrace would be uncomfortable if you weren’t comfortable with the person yet. And at the time, St Ignatius was not comfortable with the thought of Jesus yet. He had not yet read the Lives of Saints. You can see the books strewn across the floor because they haven’t been touched yet. That’s a nice tiny detail.”

Another easter egg Josh added to the piece was his use of the “golden ratio” composition. “Kapag i-follow mo yung arm ni Jesus, it lies exactly in the golden ratio (in relation to where Ignatius is). That’s something I really intended.”

Inspired by the impressionists

When it comes to the painting technique for this particular piece, Josh was inspired by impressionist artist Claude Monet. “The painting is very impressionistic in style. If you zoom in or look closely you can see the brush strokes, so it’s a very Monet-inspired piece. I find Monet to be my favorite painter so that’s something I wanted to integrate in my work. Nakita ko yung Water Lilies (in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris) and it helped me formulate my ideas for the piece.”

And then, there was the challenge of getting just the right tone. “I wanted it to be very Renaissance-esque in terms of the masters of old,” reveals Josh. “If you look at my artworks on my Instagram (@retnyo), a lot of them are more modern in style—mas full yung colors, mas bold. Pero yung Renaissance, it’s a very painterly style and shows a lot of human error. And it’s something that I really wanted to depict.”

God remains hovering

For all the effort Josh poured into his banner, there has been much positive feedback. Quite a few viewers found it “moving,” including his own mother, who was in tears when she saw it. Fr RB adds, “You had people appreciating the installation, and then being surprised that a high school kid made it.” Dr Delos Santos also relays that there were those who commented that the banner depicted Ignatius “differently” but “different in a good way.” The proud aunt gushes, “For Josh to depict him being operated on like that…I think it’s such a grace for him to have such a unique and youthful perspective.”

Gesù visitors also admired how the painting looks as if it had been created during Ignatius’ lifetime. One commented that the work was “appropriately dark” because it showed a “dark time in Ignatius’ life.” That Jesus was depicted “hovering” above Ignatius was interpreted by another observer to mean that even in dark times, “God remains hovering over us.”

More young artists at the Gesù

So encouraged was Fr RB at the positive reception for Josh’s banner that they had a conversation in August about Josh creating another artwork for the birthday of the Blessed Mother Mary in September. “Unfortunately, we just ran out of time,” admits Fr RB, “even though I loved the idea that Josh proposed. His youthful appreciation of the Divine mystery is beautiful.” 

   
Ever on the lookout to engage students in the church and its activities, Fr RB hopes to tap other artists from Ateneo de Manila Basic Education (grade school, junior high school, and senior high school) and even from the college to create artworks for the Gesù. “My own reflection is that when you give the students a chance, they’ll shine… as Josh did,” he offers.