Artist and teacher Leonardo Hidalgo

Leonardo Hidalgo's art career spanned several countries and dozens of years, but it was a dance school that brought him to Philadelphia.

Mr. Hidalgo, who was born in the Philippines, was already a well-established artist and professor there when his only daughter won a scholarship to Philadelphia's Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet in 1992.

Mr. Hidalgo moved the family to Philadelphia - where he kept painting - and ended up staying for the rest of his life. He died at home Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 78 after suffering a heart attack.

His daughter, Odranoele Anderson, described her father as self-sacrificing, unassuming, and bighearted.

"He gave the art world and he gave his family his all," she said.

Mr. Hidalgo was born Jan. 9, 1935, in San Fernando, La Union, and demonstrated an early talent for art. After graduating from the University of Santo Tomas, one of the oldest universities in the Philippines, he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome on a scholarship from the Italian government.

While in Italy, he worked as a scenic artist, helping paint the Sistine Chapel set for The Agony and the Ecstasy, the 1965 film about Michelangelo starring Charlton Heston.

Mr. Hidalgo later returned to the University of Santo Tomas to lead its fine arts department. In the meantime, he hosted dozens of exhibitions and took commissions for murals and monuments.

His love of art spilled into his everyday life. He and his wife, Alba, named their daughter Odranoele - "Leonardo" spelled backward, with an added "e" - because Leonardo da Vinci had often signed his paintings with the name "Odranoel."

"I was just daddy's little girl," Anderson said. "And [my parents] basically sacrificed their lives in the Philippines to move here for me."

Anderson received a scholarship to the Rock School at 14 and went on to dance with the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Russian Philadelphia Ballet Theatre. Life in Philadelphia wasn't always easy for the Hidalgos, she said, but her father loved living here.

Mr. Hidalgo continued his art career in the region, restoring Old St. Augustine Church's Stations of the Cross paintings and designing sets for the Russian Philadelphia Ballet Theatre. In September, the Filipino American Association of Philadelphia honored him with a Centennial Award for Culture and Arts at a gala celebration.

When Anderson posted news of her father's death on Facebook, the status update was flooded with comments.

"Everyone just responded. Kids I grew up with said my father had influenced them into getting into art," she said. "It was really nice - you knew that he made a mark. His life wasn't a waste. He did what he was supposed to do."

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Hidalgo is survived by several brothers and sisters and two grandchildren. A Funeral Mass will be said at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 21, at Old St. Augustine Church, 234 N. Lawrence St., Philadelphia. Burial will be in Mr. Hidalgo's home town in the Philippines.

Memorial gifts can be made to the Filipino American Association of Philadelphia or to the Philippine Folk Art Society.