afternoon at the national museum (part 2)

-
It must be difficult to be a tourist at the Sistine Chapel. One, the masterpieces are so intricate that I'm sure I'd look at the ceiling paintings for a long time. Two, there are so many things to see that I might be overwhelmed by all the artwork. Three, there are huge crowds all the time, surely, since it's a famous destination.

I've never been there; it's still in my bucket list.

The closest that I've been to the gawking-at-the-Sistine-Chapel-ceiling-experience, as of yet, was my visit to one of the National Museum's exhibits: various photographs or paintings of features of ceilings of old churches of Bohol. The way the artwork are displayed reminded me of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Yes, there are pieces hanging on the walls like normal paintings but there also are pieces that are suspended horizontally near the exhibit area's ceiling.

Alas, I couldn't lie down on the floor; that would just be too weird to the other visitors. I wish that I had a big mirror with me as I started feeling a strain on my neck.

The artwork are of saints and symbols of the Catholic faith as depicted in the different churches. Since I was looking up most of the time, I didn't bother looking at the captions found on blue circular labels stuck on the wooden floor. Actually, I didn't care too much about who or what is featured in the artwork; I was more interested in how the exhibit is presented.

As I entered the area, I felt like I was going inside one of the Spanish-era churches in Ilocos, just like in the summer Hum 2 class I sat at in 2000... half expecting Dr Paul Zafaralla to suddenly pop out of one of the corners.

Paintings in the ceiling. 

Paintings that seemed like statues found in side chapels or in niches along a church's walls. 

Paintings on opposite ends of the exhibit area. 

The only things missing at the time of my visit were the altar, the artwork behind the altar, the candle holders, and the smell of incense... then I'd really feel like I've stumbled into a church inside the museum! 

Congratulations to the team who developed this exhibit! Since the art gallery is closed at the moment, the collection here at the Kisame exhibit somehow made up for the artwork that I missed out on. I just couldn't remember the names of the people involved in it... and I couldn't find the information in the National Museum of the Philippines website.

Want to see these pieces of ceiling art? They're in the fourth floor of the Museum of the Filipino People, if I remember it correctly, just beside the biodiversity exhibit. The National Museum is found along P. Burgos St., Rizal Park, Manila.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma
Read more