1.

) NATIONAL MUSEUM, MANILA - SPOLARIUM

The coals of Philippine history are as beautiful as the Filipinos respect for Philippine visual

expressions. These sorts of works of art portray the internal political and socio-social

perspectives; and also the assumptions of a Filipino ace painter, such as Juan Luna. ​Juan Luna​, a

painter from Badoc, Ilocos Norte and lived in Europe in the late 19th century, is considered as

one of the greatest painters of the Philippines. His works were inspired with classical balance

and often showed theatrical poses. He won the gold medal, out of three, in the 1884 Madrid

Exposition of Fine Arts with his most internationally renowned piece of modern Filipino art

entitled “​Spolarium​”. The work of art includes a look at Roman history fixated on the bleeding

bloodletting brought by gladiatorial matches. Spoliarium is a Latin word alluding to the storm

cellar of the Roman Colosseum where the fallen and passing on combatants are dumped and

empty. This art gained great popularity among the Filipinos.

Now, this painting is the largest painting in the Philippines and considered as our

national heritage. I see this artwork only in pictures and when my former teachers show it to us

in class. I never imagined seeing this painting in person, and it amazed me on how big the

canvass is. When I researched it, the size is four meters by height and seven meters by width.

Imagine how many people helped to put that canvass inside the main gallery of National

Museum. It is located in the ground floor of the National Museum in Manila and it will be the

first painting to greet people when they enter inside the museum.
 The painting screams agony and hardship of the slaves, also called as the gladiators, by

the Romans who brutally hurt them. Not just the gladiators that you will notice but also the girl

on the side of the painting that shows sorrow and helplessness. They said that it was the

motherland, the Philippines, who cries for what the other nation has done to her people. Also,

you can see the other people on the other side of the painting which are the audiences. Some

show pity while the other shows how proud and happy they are as Romans that the slaves are

being tortured to death and begging for their freedom.

I guess this is why the painting won a gold medal and being treasured because of its

content. Juan Luna surely painted how the Filipinos were treated by the colonizer on their own

land. The painting itself shows strong emotions and visualization of what happened 300 years

ago. Knowing Juan Luna who was one of the against Filipino by the ruling of Spaniards, he

made the other Filipinos to open up their eyes and see how bad the Spaniards are. This painting

is one of the best for me because it is our reminder not to waste the hardship of the other

Filipinos just to make our country free from the other countries. Whenever I see this painting, it

inspires me to good for the sake of my country. To be proud and prove to other countries not we

are not just the Philippines, we are more than that. I hope that other Filipinos would be proud of

our country just like me when they see this painting.

2.) YUCHENGCO MUSEUM, AYALA - PRINCESS URDUJA

Upon researching this painting they said that there is a story behind this Princess Urduja’s

painting. ​Princess Urduja is a figure from Philippine legend, a warrior princess who is said to

have ruled the kingdom of Tawalisi in the territory of Pangasinan. Urduja is regularly depicted

as tall and delightful with brilliant bronze skin and dull hair, clad in gold, and was renowned for

driving a multitude of solid ladies warriors proficient in sword battling and horseback riding
called Kinalakihan or Amazons. Despite the fact that regardless of whether she really existed is

in dispute among researchers, she is as yet thought about a prominent courageous woman and

Philippine symbol, particularly in Pangasinan. The workplace and authority living arrangement

of the legislative head of Pangasinan is known as the Princess Urduja building or Urduja Palace.

In his endeavors to advance pre-Hispanic Filipino symbols, National Artist Fernando

Amorsolo made a few works of art in the 1950s delineating Princess Urduja. Due to the absence

of authentic information about the fourteenth-century Philippines, the vast majority of the subtle

elements of his portrayal -, for example, garments and weaponry - originated from Amorsolo's

creative ability. ​Fernando Amorsolo ​was one of the most important artists in the history of

painting in the Philippines. Amorsolo was a portraitist and painter of rural Philippine

landscapes. He is popularly known for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light. This

information about Amorsolo is from Wikipedia. Observing all the painting by Amorsolo, all of

it has a similarity to each other. It is their warm tones that captured vibrant tropical sunlight.

Almost all of his painting has a warm in each subject. He also uses dark colors for the shadows

and chrome yellow lights to show contours where the backlight struck.

I really loved this painting when the first time I saw it because it shows how powerful a

woman can be by being the leader of her tribe. In the painting, she really looks so strong and

great leader to them. Being a leader require a lot of confidence and strong will, all of this can be

seen in the painting. It shows here that the power of a woman is as equal as man and for me,

Princess Urduja represents all the strong women out there. We, women, can also be leaders like

the muse in the painting. We owe much to the overcome and strong ladies who preceded us,
they have been battling since the absolute starting point. This painting is located in Yuchengco

Museum at Ayala. You can also find the other paintings there by Fernando Amorsolo.

3.) MEGAMALL ART MUSEUM, PASAY - PYGMALION AND GALATEA

In 1890, French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme made a painting entitled ​Pygmalion and Galatea​. The

motif of the painting is taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The Pygmalion and Galatea myth

story is one of the famous and influential stories in Greek Mythology. The Roman artist Ovid, in

his Metamorphoses, Book X, relates that Pygmalion, a stone carver, makes an ivory statue

speaking to his optimal of womanhood and after that becomes hopelessly enamored with his

own creation, which he names Galatea; the goddess Venus breathes life into the statue in reply

to his supplication. In this museum, all the famous arts are painted in a different way. As you

can see in the photo, the painter made it cuter than its usual image before. The characters and the

background are different in the original.

This idea and oil in the canvas are made by ​Jomar Delluba​. Jomar Delluba sees his craft

as a strong individual ordeal. His works utilize similitudes to verbalize the possibility of regular

individuals in his typically splendid style. Figuration dominates his works, overflowing with

pop-workmanship sensibilities. He is much the same as nationalistic topics, which accumulated

him inclination among his gatherers. His most recent accomplishment was securing the second

place in the 2011 Ali Art Competition where just about a hundred candidates joined. I like his

idea because it gave new preference compare to other painting. Although it looks childish and a
little bit off into the original painting, its cute and fresh idea is always welcome to the art word,

anyway.