Greatest Filipino Painter on my List

January 15, 2021

Amirasolo and other Essays

Part 2. My Trip Around the Art World

Essay 14. GREATEST FILIPINO PAINTER ON MY LIST

I and my close buddies from the UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts first saw Carlos Botong Francisco's masterpiece, "History of Manila", in 1974. There were four us---myself, Jun Diaz, Rene Ricanor, and Tony Tejado---who trooped to the Manila City Hall one morning expressly to see the masterpiece displayed at the Bulwagang Katipunan, the anteroom of the Mayor's office.

But we didn't stay there long. We can't, because in the hall were employees busy working. We feel that we'll be interfering with their work if we prolong our stay there. So, we contented ourselves with just casting cursory glances at each painting panel from afar because the panels were arranged at the upper half of the high walls. We were hesitant to go nearer the walls because we might disturb the employees' whose desks were lined up along them, so we just stood by the door from where we can't see the paintings clearly. That visit to the Manila City Hall to view Botong's masterpiece was a disappointment.

That's why I was overjoyed when I learned last year that that monumental work was installed and can already be viewed at the National Museum of Fine Arts. I and my fellow artists and cyclists Henry Braulio and Francisco Dela Cruz hastened there on our bikes to see it. We weren't disappointed, because the paintings were positioned low, almost flushed to the floor, where we can gazed at and study them closely. Taking photos of the artworks are also allowed provided that no flash is use.

"The History of Manila" (now titled "Filipino Struggles Through History") was commissioned by then Manila Mayor Gatpuno Antonio Villegas in 1968. It was completed by Botong just before he died in 1969, at the age of 57.

In 2012, during the term of Mayor Alfredo Lim, it was discovered that the artworks were deteriorating due to the leaking pipes from the upper floor. After receiving funding from the Department of Tourism, Mayor Lim sent the paintings to the National Museum for restoration. And there they stayed.

It was former Mayor Erap Estrada and the then Manila City Council who signed the agreement authorizing the loan of the paintings to the National Museum. That was a generous and patriotic move, because that masterpiece by Botong, which was declared a National Cultural Treasure in 1996, can now be viewed to their hearts content, not only by Filipinos but foreign tourists as well, all year round and free of charge.

If Paris has its Louvre, Madrid its Prado, London its Tate, Florence it's Uffizi, and New York it's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manila has its National Museum of Fine Arts---a museum we all could be proud of, the repository and showcase of the artistic talent of our nation's sons and daughters.

I also learned lately that the four large-scale paintings by Botong displayed at the main foyer of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) were also loaned by the University of the Philippines to the National Museum, where they will be more appreciated.

I've seen those paintings, collectively titled "The Progress of Medicine in the Philippines", up close at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) when I went there for an eye check-up. Two painting panels were placed on each wall of the foyer facing each other. There were benches and chairs lined up along those walls. While sitting there with my wife Carina, I observed that I was the only person eyeing and keenly interested in those paintings. All the others were oblivious of those masterpieces, occupied perhaps with thoughts of their ailments and other mundane matters, or perhaps just plain ignorant of the significance of the cultural treasures behind them. Anyway, those four Botong paintings from the PGH now on view at the National Museum are definitely worth another visit.

I mentioned in one of my writings that I ranked Botong first on my list of great Filipino painters, with Amorsolo coming in a close second. I still hold that opinion to this day. I've seen a lot of original Botong paintings and photographs of them that I supposed I can distinguish the fake ones done by painters with mediocre skills from the authentic. And I've seen two examples of what I suspect are fake Botong sketches posted in Facebook years ago. The amateurishness of whoever did them are so evident that I dismissed them outright as probable fakes.

The late great art critic Leonidas Benesa, in a review he wrote in 1979, said it best:

"Botong would probably be the most difficult to fake or mimic in paint. Beside the works of the Angono master, those of his followers look awkward in figuration, or garish in coloration. His watercolors were done spontaneously, and where the brush hesitates, or stops in places, resumes, stops again, etc., you have some reason to wonder whether or not the work is authentic."

But people change. Those amateurish forgers might have improved a lot, or perhaps painters who are better skilled from the start might have joined that lucrative racket. There could be fake Botongs hidden in some collection somewhere painted by forgers of exceptional skill which can avoid detection. "Caveat emptor", therefore. Buyers beware!