MINIATURES

One of the last photos of Jose Rizal's sister Narcisa, taken a couple of years before her passing in 1939. In a newspaper interview, Narcisa mentioned that the character of Sisa in the Noli Me Tangere was actually based not only on her name but also on the life she had as a mother. She confided that she received a letter from her brother telling her that he was adopting her nickname for one of the characters in a novel (Noli Me Tangere) which he was writing that moment in Berlin. She believed it was perhaps her experience of losing two children in infancy that triggered her brother to do so—the sorrow of a mother, with all her loyalty to her husband and devotion to her children. But the character of the searching Sisa was rather prophetic. Years later, Narcisa would then look around the "arrabales" (outskirts) of Manila, trying to locate where the Spaniards brought the remains of her executed brother. Searching around like a fool perhaps? Like Sisa? Narcisa Rizal Lopez...

Photo of Juan Luna in his Paris studio. The Benlliure bust of Luna could be seen on display . Is this the one we have now in the National Museum? Definitely not. What Luna had in his studio could be the very first bust Benlliure created from the original mold he made for Luna in 1884. Judging from it's color, it could also be a plaster cast. But if you look carefully, you can still see that the "cuello" (neck) is depicted with a suit. Now, sometime in 1920, a group of Spanish artists who were friends of Juan Luna approached Mariano Benlliure and asked the renowned sculptor to make another copy from the old cast of the Luna bust. It is a common practice among sculptors to keep the original cast of their works. From that prototype, Benlliure then did a retouch and made the "cuello" naked. However, he did not change the old signature or monogram, so it still carries the date 1884. This retouched bust was actually part of the so-called gifts from this group of Spani...