National Museum of the Philippines

Last Saturday (Jan. 7) I went down to Intramuros, the old section of Manila (as in, 16th century old) and looked around the National Museum of the Philippines. The Museum is housed in the old legislative building where the Philippine House of Representatives and Senate met during the U.S. colonial period (1898-1946). Where beautiful art now hangs, Philippine leaders crafted a constitution in 1935 which led to the Philippines' independence as a republic in 1946, and that constitution held until Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law and established a dictatorship in 1972.

Here are some of the treasures from the National Museum:

This is a sculpture by the great Filipino patriot, poet, doctor, Renaissance man Jose Rizal, whose novels Noli Me Tangere (1887) and El Filibusterismo (1891) were the backbone of Philippine nationalism. Rizal was executed by the Spanish for subversion in 1897, but he remains the national hero of the Philippines. The sculpture, "The Mother's Revenge" (1894), depicts a dog attacking the crocodile who has taken her pups.

In the old House chamber hangs one of the masterpieces of Filipino art, Juan Luna's Spoliarium (1884), which won the first prize at the National Exposition in Madrid that year, heralding Filipinos as having "arrived" in the Spanish art scene. Juan Luna had an illustrious career in Spain, and several of his major works remain in Spain. The painting depicts the area of the Roman circus where gladiators are disarmed and disrobed.

A place of shame and defeat, it makes me think of the passage in Hebrews where the writer reminds us that "Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come" (Hebrews 13:12-14, ESV).

Luna spent much of his career in Europe, including in France. I enjoy the expression on the face of this sleeper from Domestic Scenes in Paris, ca. 1887-92. Looks like me when I have to get up:

Later in his career, Luna turned to social realism, and produced works depicting life in Asia as well as in Europe. I love this piece in particular for its isolation. (Philippine Scenes, 1894/5)



Fittingly, this watercolor is the first depiction of the Philippine national flag, and the last work of Luna (ca. March 1899), when he was in Europe working as a diplomat for the Philippine Republic, which declared its independence from Spain in 1898 and which the United States fought from 1899-1902. This bloody war (which occasioned Rudyard Kipling's famous "White Man's Burden" poem) is often forgotten in the United States, but not in the Philippines.

Now some more recent works: this sculpture from 1949 is entitled "Plea for Freedom from Fear," referring to FDR's famous 1941 speech (the sculptor is Fermin Gomez). The work shows the raw emotion and pain of a nation destroyed and scarred by the Second World War. By 1949, a Communist insurgency (the Huks), dating from anti-Japanese guerrilla forces, was also engulfing the main island of Luzon.

These striking, modernist wall-sized paintings were in the cafeteria for the International Rice Research Institute, a Rockefeller and Ford Foundation-funded think tank set up in the 1960 here in Manila. The paintings show Philippine life, as depicted by Vicente Manansala, one of the great 20th century Filipino painters.

Finally, just because of the nature of my work on anticolonialism and internationalism, I was drawn to the title of this piece (I can't say I care for the painting itself, though): Third World (1981), by Papo de Asis.

I didn't even make it through the entire museum. It holds lots of treasures! Here is the building, in the sunset as I was leaving:

And the memorial to Jose Rizal at the site of his execution in 1897, in nearby Rizal Park:

For your viewing pleasure, the greatest of guides to any city or art museum: Sister Wendy.




*Sorry for the weird size issues with the text. I'm still figuring it out.