It’s free entrance to the National Museum this month and earlier today I went (commuted, in fact) and saw for myself a national treasure, the Spoliarium. Painted by Filipino artist Juan Luna it went on to win first gold medal in the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes 1884. In my travels, if budget persists, I get to visit museums and I’ve come across Filipino works in some of them.
This Luna painting reminded me of the works I’ve seen in Europe.
Cafe Adriatico in Manila. Someone said Manila is dead, perhaps there’s truth to this but culture and history always lives on and these two things are present in this city.
Stepping into old structures always made me feel like I’m going back in time. The National Museum of Fine Arts was no exception. What used to be the Old Legislative Building has been turned into the museum. Just look at the ornate ceiling and columns, which I believe the latter to be Corinthian.
These stairs were a treat! On my way down, instead of taking the elevator I took these instead. They reminded me of the spiral staircase in the Vatican (which I took pictures of but because of my stolen phone I now only have them in memory).
After being colonised by Spain for 300 years I’ve come to realise that we are teeming with culture unfortunately we’re not doing a good job of keeping it alive. Hopefully it’s not too late.
it begins with a step 