All about portraits
Second of 4 parts
WHEN Lisa Guerrero Nakpil, commissioner of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines and an advocate for public history, asked me to write a chapter on some of the most important portraits in Philippine history featured in the book “It’s All About Faces,” she specifically asked me to choose from the portrait collection in our National Museum of Fine Arts.
Hands down, my favorite work there is Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo’s portrait of the first Filipino diplomat, Felipe Agoncillo. No photograph could ever do justice to the man; the portrait possesses a hypnotic appeal because it brings Agoncillo so much to life. Hidalgo, after all, is the artist who received a silver medal, alongside Juan Luna’s gold, at the Madrid Exposition in 1884, bringing significant honor to our people. The context of those times was Western racism against Asians and Africans, and we took pains to prove that we were at par with their talents and to depict ourselves as dignified. First, the propagandists asking Spaniards for reform and trying to prove we were ready for it by trying to become like them — in the arts and in our clothing. And after the Philippine Revolution following which we established the first constitutional democratic republic in Asia, we were also vying for international recognition of our new nation by portraying ourselves as a cosmopolitan people.
But why is it still so life-like after more than a century? According to notable portraitist Igor V. Babailov, honorary academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, “Since having a portrait painted is usually a once-in-a-lifetime experience, every credential should be considered, including the artist’s ability to work from life. If you’re thinking to hire an artist to copy a ready-made image of a photograph, you may as well just enlarge that photo and save yourself a lot of money.” But then, he noted, photos do not last; they fade, while it would take 450 years for oil paint (or oil paintings) to dry completely. “This is why today, the beautiful Renaissance paintings look as ‘fresh’ as if they were painted yesterday. A photograph, on the other hand, starts to deteriorate immediately after it has been taken, and fades visibly in 30-50 years….”
That the portrait of Felipe Agoncillo done by Felix Hidalgo was painted from life, makes it hugely important because we are able to see a realistic impression of Agoncillo in full color. In fact, it is so good that recently, this portrait was loaned to the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.
Ana Maria Theresa Labrador, Filipino curator and honorary senior fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia, said in the audio commentary: “When I look at this portrait, I see actually a portrait of dignity, but behind it is a lot of heartbreak.” She went on to talk about how Agoncillo sacrificed much to seek recognition of our independence and Republic, sailing to the United States and France. Despite nearly drowning when his boat capsized in Scotland, “he seemed to be unflappable.” He was privileged, yes, but he dug deep into his family’s coffers for the cause of the Republic, and at one point, his wife Marcella Marino, equally famous as the maker of the Philippine flag, would have to sell her jewelry to finance Agoncillo’s ill-fated efforts. He would ultimately be dismissed by both the Spanish and the Americans, shut out of the negotiations at the Treaty of Paris, which would decide our fate as a country handed from one empire to the next. Labrador added: “He was so disappointed. In the course of studying this portrait, I learned so much about the quality of his character. You can see a man who’s quite well-dressed, and that Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo wanted to really portray that kind of dignity that remained intact — his valor, his integrity, as a Filipino and a human being.”
If there was heartbreak, I never saw it in my numerous visits to view the portrait. My personal impression was that this was a man so secure, so confident that he had done his best for his people, and I guess that is why the portrait has so much dignity. Painted in 1899, this was a picture of a man in the middle of doing his work for the nation. Without a doubt, both the subject and the artist are patriots.
Studying a historical portrait is a very good exercise, not just in knowing details about history or in analyzing the meanings of works of art, but it can also be a way for us to imagine the feelings of those who created our nation, to whom we owe much of our freedom.