as our friends were a little late in coming, lea and i decided not to fill up the visitors form yet and to wait for them outside the museum and have our pictures taken. one by one they arrived. unfortunately, it was already too late when we found out that a private car can park in front of the museum's main entrance. tin and bennie had to walk all the way from the congressional building. anyway, once we arrived there, our first stop was the Hall of Masters -- the hall which houses Juan Luna's famous Spoliarium.
before entering the hall, though, we had to sign up and leave our bags behind. the only things we were allowed to bring were our phones and wallets. picture-taking is not allowed inside the museum, especially those that needed flash because of its effect on the paintings. after depositing our bags and lea signing up for all six of us, we were waiting for the receptionsist to charge us with the entrance fee of php150, but all she said was we were free to enter. later, this guy who works for the museum approached us and told us that the entrance for the art gallery (where we were), the museum of the filipino people, and the planetarium were free for that day so if we want to get a load of museum stuff and catch a free show, then we should take advantage and go to all three! aren't we lucky?!
inside the Hall of Masters, we "studied" each painting with a novice's eyes so to an expert, or culturati, our comments must seem funny and too ignorant. there was this sketch of a farm by Juan Luna that we looked at and Tin's only comment was "I could do a better outcrop drawing than that!" to which one of us said, "Well, he certainly lacked a good paper to draw the sketch on, or a better pencil!" apologies though to the painter, we don't mean to insult his sketch. after all, he is a Master!
there was also this coat dress of juan luna, let me call him JL from now on, displayed inside a glass box. we were so amazed of it's size because it seems that JL was short. we tried measuring the length of the coat against our heights and it seemed that JL is almost as tall as steph, or a little bit taller than her! even bennie stood beside it and it seemed that the arm-length of the coat fits only three-fourth's of his!
next came a side-by-side painting by Hidalgo (i think it was his). for a while, lea and i stood looking at it, trying to decipher what the paintings' titles meant. one was something like 'atardecer en bretagne' and the other, 'arredecer en bretagne.' as i have a minute spanish language background, i realized that the first painting meant afternoon or late (tarde), then it came to us that the paintings were that of a sunrise and sunset. wow, that was "educational!"
there was also this set of letters by JL to his mother and siblings that we were fascinated about. JL's penmanship was so precise! looking at it and reading the words, it brings you a real sense of what history really is! it is about how the people who came before you lived, what they believed in, and how that influenced our lives today. it was just amazing! then, questions again sprung like, "how long did those letters travel from spain to the islands?" or "how come their penmanship came that way? is that how they were taught to write? we did have writing lessons when we were children but our profession can influence them, too! like the engineers, doctors and architects."
there were other paintings that solicited several reactions from us. one example was this painting of a woman in bed. we were discussing about the table's linen clothing when suddenly, steph corrected us because what we were looking at was actually the tassel of a bassinet and she pointed out the clothing going to the top where a net can cover the baby's crib from, most probably, mosquitoes. there was also this painting of a Don, where his painting seemed to chip off and there was a round 'dirt' in the middle of his distinguished coat. we jokingly said that the painter must have accidentally placed his paint cup onto the painting and the edge left a trace on it. hahahaha...
we realized too, while inside the hall, that reading in pure Filipino can be a little bit difficult. reading Rizal's Bigkis on the two painters triumphs in the western world and how it can be said that they were products of not just one world, but two, they can spring forth a passion for our race. what truly caught us was this statement -- there is no nationality for genius. truly, there is none! we were struck by that thought that one of us (i won't say who!) wanted to 'immortalize' it in a picture. she looked this way and that, hoping that the museum personnel wouldn't see her take a picture, and quickly she took photos of it. suddenly, this guy came up to our group and looked at her and said - 'no pictures! nakita kita (i saw you)!' hehehehe....
personally, i liked the two big, facing paintings in the hall. one of course, was the Spoliarium which shows a scene inside a colloseum - a fallen man dragged after his fight, with people looking on wearing different emotions on their faces, and an anguished lady turned back from the rest of the painting. this painting was a hit in the 1886 Madrid Exposition and had won gold, they said. what was best about this was its depiction of the same state that JL's motherland, Filipinas, was experiencing from Spain. the other painting i liked best there was the Assassination of Gov. Bustamante and his son. allan said that gov. bustamante was killed because he was pro-Filipino and the spanish did not like that. i guess i like this painting because it shows that, even if the odds were against a conquered people, there were those that were not blind and were willing to do what was best for them, and there were those who were willing to do a person bad just because one do not share their beliefs. hmmm... i just remembered what Elphaba said in Wicked -- "no good thing goes unpunished."
unfortunately for us, there were no guides nor brochures for the museum. there were so much to learn in that hall but there were only us to discuss them with. i hope the museum would remedy that soon. they should add an audio guide just like those in museums abroad.
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