National Museum to display 157 Juan Lunas on June 12

Hilarion M. Henares, Jr. chairman of the National Museum, has grandiose plans for celebrating the 112th anniversary of Philippine Independence Day on June 12.

At 5 p.m., present, past and future Philippine Presidents will be invited to cut the ribbon for a grand exhibit at the National Museum, the first since 2002, to mark Independence Day and the June 30th inauguration of the 15th President of the Republic.

The first part of the grand exhibit will be the permanent display of 157 Juan Luna paintings never ever shown together before, the largest collection of Luna paintings being a donation of the Far East Bank in the 1990s. The display will be highlighted by the unveiling of the newly restored “Una Bulakena” masterpiece which, together with the “Spoliarium”, will be declared National Treasures”, thus attaining the highest form of heritage status.

It might be of interest for readers to know that the model for “La Bulakeña” was Emiliana Trinidad of Bulacan. She later became the wife of Dr. Isidoro de Santos and the mother of Edita de Santos Orosa, wife of banker Sixto L. Orosa, Jr.

Emiliana became the favorite model of Luna, and a number of his sketches and drawings are still with Emiliana’s grandson Sixto S. Orosa III.

One of Emiliana’s grand-daughters told me that Emiliana identified the paintings Luna did of her or for her by writing on the back of each work Pintado por Juan Luna. Luna fell in love with Emiliana and wanted to marry her but he was then 32; she, only 18, and her family thought the age gap too big.

“La Bulakeña” found its way to Malacañang and Emiliana’s family entrusted me with the task of going to the Palace and of giving the First Lady, through Executive Secretary Rafael Salas, a letter requesting the return of the painting to its rightful owner. Nothing came of the letter.

As an aside on the “Spoliarium”, years before the war, my mother had asked a certain Spanish painter named Cortes to make a copy of it. I thought it an excellent copy; the huge canvas caught the eye of every visitor who came to our house on Taft Avenue.

When we evacuated to Batangas to escape the horrors of the Japanese Occupation, Japanese soldiers set fire to Taft reducing the Luna copy to cinders.

The second part of the National Museum exhibit consists of 150 Fernando Amorsolo sketches and memorabilia (paint brushes, palettes, easels), highlighted by a signed deed of donation from the Amorsolo family.

The third and most significant part of the exhibit, its piece de resistance, is the representation of the 30 greatest treasures of Philippine archaeology, designated as “Natural Cultural Treasures”, elevating them to the highest heritage status through a signed official declaration.

These treasures include one of only two known existing “astrolabes” invented in ancient Alexandria and found in the San Diego wreck of 1600 A.D.; the Tabon Tibia Fragment from the oldest Filipino, carbon-dated 47,000 years ago; the Tabon Skull Cap, the earliest skull of modern man, carbon-dated 15,000 years ago; artifacts and ecofacts representing aspects of 50,000 years of Philippine history.

Currently, the National Museum is restoring the former Senate Session Hall where Senate President Manuel L. Quezon presided over sessions and where illustrious leaders Claro M. Recto, Sergio Osmeña, Manuel Roxas and Benigno Aquino gathered, the former Lower House Session Hall, and making space for an auditorium, a function venue and a gallery.

In September, a special “Kapangpangan” exhibit will feature the Aquinos, the Abad Santoses, the Macapagals, with emphasis on Diosdado’s 100th birth anniversary, the history of the Macabebe Scouts, the Hukbulhaps, the NPA, Clark Field, the Exile of Lakandula and the tax exemption granted his descendants (including the Puyats and Macapagals) the Gonzales family, the gift of the Russian Czar, the Mancommunidad Extravaganzas, Pampangueño zarzuelas and literature.