IA#4 Museum Visit 1
This is my very first time to visit a museum since I was a child. I never got the chance to visit museums during field trips, so I was very excited for my first time to visit a museum. The museum that me and my friends visited was the National Museum of the Philippines. The Pambansang Museo features various Philippine national collections from paintings to artifacts. It safeguards cultural artifacts and properties that are vital throughout the Philippines. As we went inside the museum, we saw a lot of paintings, sculptures, drawings, etc., by various Filipino artists inside different halls and galleries. While looking around the museum, I found artworks that I found most interesting. Below are the eight artworks that caught my attention during my visit to the National Museum.
This painting is titled, Bandera Filipina, inscribed “Souvenir de 1899”. This was painted by Juan Luna y Novicio using a watercolor on paper. This is the first known artistic illustration of the Philippine Flag. This was also the last known artwork by Luna before he died. This painting was created as a souvenir for Dr. Jose Rizal’s friend maybe to show how the Philippines are free now because of Rizal’s heroism. Luna wants to portray the time that the flag of the Philippines was officially opened and displayed during the Philippine Independence Day on 1898.
This is a sculpture by Isabelo Tampinco y Lancandola, which he made in a polychrome concrete. This is titled, “Solitude”. This artwork portrays isolation or where you find peace and quiet time. The artist wants to show us that people, like us, also needs our own quiet time and silence in order for us to relax and to find time for ourselves.
This is another artwork, sculpture, made by Isabelo Tampinco y Lacandola. This is titled, “Old man and a Boy”. This sculpture depicts a child helping out his father, which seems to be old and weak to walk by himself. This portrays the value of the Filipinos which is caring for the elderly, especially if their are our parents.
This is an artwork made from plaster of Paris by Fermin Gomez, entitled “A Plea for Freedom from Fear”. The sculpture itself, says a lot about it- it depicts a mother that is shouting, more like screaming, and pleading to stop whatever is making them feel fear. It also shows that the mother lost one of her child and that her other children look so scared that they need to hide behind her- but the mother doesn’t know how to defend her children. The sculpture reflects the horrors of war and how people begged for freedom and peace.
This painting was made by D. Belgica, using oil on paper. As you see in the painting, it is a Bahay Kubo- a type of house that indigenous people in the Philippines live. This painting depicts the simple life that Filipinos have before we were influenced and colonized by different countries. This wanted to show us that before, this simple architecture is enough to shelter a family and big houses with full of stones are not the first home that Filipino family had.
This painting is entitled, “Belleza Filipina- Filipina Beauty” made by Jorge Pineda using pastel on paper. This painting portrays a young Filipina holding tubes of paint. She wears the typical baro of the Filipina, before, and she looks so simple, prim and proper- just like what Filipina looks like in the early 1900s. Pineda wanted to show a young woman that has interest in art and wanted to show that even woman before can be an artist. And this is how Pineda sees Filipina beauty, that Filipina are not just a wife or a daughter but they can also be an artist.
This is a sculpture by Jose P. Alcantara, entitled “Ina ng Lahi”, which he made out of Narra wood. This sculpture shows a woman wearing a Filipiniana dress, looking up with hands posed in a praying position. Alcantara wanted to portray that the mother of the Filipinos looking up and praying to God- Filipinos’ value of being god- fearing. Or maybe Alcantara wanted to show a woman praying for freedom and peace for our motherland.
Lastly, we can never leave the National Museum without seeing the famous “Spoliarium” of Juan Luna, which is his most valuable oil- on- canvas painting. This painting originally represents the hardships of the Filipinos during the Spanish colonization. This painting is a reminder for the Filipinos of all the hardships that we experienced in the hands of the Spaniards and how we went through it and achieved our freedom.
I enjoyed my first ever trip in a museum. I was really amused of everything that I saw, from the paintings to the sculptures. There were really a lot of things to be proud of as a Filipino. We wish we had a lot of time to look around the different galleries and buildings of the museum. Surely, we will come back again to appreciate these kinds of arts and be proud of.
