MANILA, Philippines - In the spectacular exhibit at the Ayala Museum of extant works of the native master Simon Flores (1839-1902), lavish portraits dominate the third-floor gallery, indicating the artist's renown as portrait painter for the affluent and the socially prominent toward the late 19th century.

Mainly drawn from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas collection, the portraits show Flores' mastery of composition and fine miniaturist detailing, particularly of the embroidery of the piña costumes and the exquisite jewelry of their subjects, as well as the ornate furniture that provide their background.

But standing in stark contrast to this rich portraiture are two untitled drawings on paper from the collection of Dr. Eleuterio Pascual.

One is of an old woman seated on a wooden bench while grinding betel nut. The other is a woman peasant with a sickle, apparently taking a respite from hard labor on the field. The catalogue notes: "It is a barefoot woman wearing an everyday blouse and a checkered skirt. A scapular hangs from her neck, and a wide-brimmed straw hat shields her from the noonday sun. Her pose suggests that she was probably interrupted while harvesting palay or cutting grass, as indicated by the sickle she is holding."

What the drawings lack in color Flores seems to have made up for by smudges and shadings. In the process, the renderings appear harsher, more stark.

Age and the elements, too, have given the drawings a crusty, craggy air. While the ornately framed portraits on canvas reek of nostalgia and the old genteel centuries, the drawings on paper look callous and cruel, austere in their realism.

To render the harshness and cruelty of agrarian reality may not have been Flores' intention-it is doubtful if he was a proto-social realist. To be sure, the drawing of the old woman with her favorite pastime of betel-chewing is romantic and bucolic.

But the fact that Flores' skill at lifelike rendering was trained at subjects that ran the gamut of the mighty and the lowly should point to the universality of his art.