Lantacon, June N.

CE-1 / A2
Reaction Paper: National Museum

The National Museum of Fine Arts is one of the three most recognized national museums in the
Philippines, especially here in Manila. The remaining two are National Museum of Anthropology and
National Museum of Natural History. All these three museums contain what is left from the history, but
mostly, the displayed ones are just replications of the original since these objects are very much being
preserved. In all honesty, the building of Fine Arts was my first museum to visit when I arrived here in
Manila to study college beside the museums that I have gone to when I was in grade school or high
school during our fieldtrips.

The National Museum of Fine Arts is considered as the house of collection of paintings and
sculptured by the classical Filipino artists including Juan Luna, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, Jose Rizal etc. I
was absolutely amazed and fascinated on how the artworks are displayed, how they are organized
depending on their genre and painter. However, I did not appreciate the colors of the walls in each room
since they tend to be so bright and when the paintings are being photographed, these paintings do not
go so well with the background color. On the other hand, let me discuss how rich our culture is. Each
artwork gives so much pride to us Filipinos, even though we are considered as a third world country,
with these creations, we tend to excel. Talking about my favorite masterpiece, I could say that it is the
“Portrait of a Lady” by Juna Luna. I love every detail that it has, especially the emotion that can be seen
on the face of the lady. How she holds the rosary and the subtle colors that were used. In this painting, I
remembered the story that was told to me which also related the painter. It was told to me that Luna
killed his wife and mother-in-law using a shotgun because of jealousy, he thought that his wife was
having an affair. He even wounded his brother-in-law because of rage. The painting says a lot even
though for other’s eyes, it looks very simply. In conclusion, I can say that my museum visit, specifically in
the art museum, is very memorable and invigorating, it really uplifted my Filipino pride despite the
political problems that currently occurs.