Image of Our Lady of Lourdes

The image of Our Lady of Lourdes at Lourdes Grotto, Mirador Hill, Baguio City is the work of Isabelo Tampingco. He was one of the best sculptors at the turn of the 19th century and the early 20th. He was commissioned to make the altar of the Santo Rosario in the neogothic church of the Dominicans and the carvings, altars, retablos and pulpit of the San Ignacio, the church attached to the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. Tampingco with his brother Vidal and uncle Crispulo Hocson and a dozen master carvers worked out of a taller (studio) at Quiapo, near R. Hidalgo St. While the Tampingcos' studio was best-known for religious images, the studio also did works for patrons other than churches. The studio made wooden frames in the Art Noveau style but used Philippine fruits and plants rather than western plants. The Tampingcos were commissioned to do the ceiling of the Metropolitan Theater, where they integrated mangos and banana leaves in their design. They also did the statues that decorate the pediment of the Philippine Congress and the statues of great lawgivers lining the upper register of the main hall of the Senate in the old Philippine Congress. The old congress building is now the National Museum of the Philippines.

The statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was completed in 1913 and for almost 100 years, the image has been in place at the grotto in Baguio. While the statue has weathered the harsh and damp weather of Baguio, an examination of the image shows that the image has sustained some damage. The base and feet of the statue are cracked. Plans to restore the statue, while respecting the genius of Isabelo Tampingco, are underway. The Lourdes statue follows closely the description of St. Bernadette describing how the Virgin looked like. This includes the roses on Mary's feet, which unfortunately cannot be seen by pilgrims because of the way the grotto has been designed.

In the redesign of the grotto, the statue will be raised by a meter and half, so that the full beauty of the image carved by Tampingco can be seen.