It's a shame
that not more people visit the National Museum. They need to get over the
notion that museums are old, stuffy and boring.
Certainly, the
National Museum is quite old. It was once the Insular Museum of Ethnology,
National History and Commerce, and on its steps Manuel L. Quezon himself
declared the onset of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935. Its two major
buildings housed entirely different things back then. The National Art Gallery
was once the old Congress building, while the Museum of the National People
used to the Finance Building.
But now, these
two neo-classical structures have undergone renovations that have transformed
them into bright, airy, modern spaces -- the first step in making the museum
more accessible to the public.
And if you read
on, this museum is anything but boring.
Some its most interesting displays include sunken treasures, the oldest
skullcap in the Philippines and even a "cursed" painting. Here is a
list of ten things that would make your visit to the National Museum, anything
but typical.
 |
| The Spoliarium by Juan Luna at the National Museum |
1. Spoliarium
Every Filipino schoolchild grew up
learning about Juan Luna's Spoliarium. They are taught that it is a
magnificent painting, one that bested many other European entries during the
Madrid Exposition of 1884. They would then see a photograph of this painting in
their history textbooks, which -- as
Filipino textbooks went -- would almost
always be in black-and-white. It would also be tiny -- postcard-sized, at best.
And so, to behold this masterpiece, in
all its gigantic, 4x7-meter glory, is
truly breathtaking. "It is more
than a painting, it is a book, a poem" -- so goes a newspaper review, one
among many in Madrid, Paris and
Barcelona, marvelling at the Spoliarium.
Juan Luna, who was as much a painter as
he was a political activist, was able to capture the Philippines' struggle
against colonial Spain through his vivid and compelling picture of men dragging other bloodied men across a
dungeon a floor, as spectators looked on.
Jose Rizal, during a speech he delivered celebrating
Luna's triumph said, "[The Spoliarium is a symbol] of our social, moral,
and political life: humanity unredeemed, reason and aspiration in open fight
with prejudice, fanaticism, and injustice."
See for yourself what Rizal was talking,
when you go to the National Museum. You won't miss it -- it's the centerpiece
in the Hall of Masters, located on the ground floor.
