Month: July 2026
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The Gilded Coconut
Looking at this extraordinary Netherlandish coconut cup, made around 1540 and now at the National Gallery of Art, it is easy to assume that the gilded silver made it precious. In the sixteenth century, however, the coconut itself was a luxury material. Still exotic in Europe, its shell was carved with coats of arms, foliage,…
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Searching for José Rizal the Theater Actor
José Rizal wrote plays and texts for school presentations. He also attended theatrical productions and recorded his opinions of them. No known source identifies him as a performer in a named dramatic role. Documenting an acting role requires a production, date, character, and source naming Rizal as the performer. His biographies contain extensive evidence of…
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From the Archive: Zeus A. Salazar’s “Pantayong Pananaw como discurso civilizacional”
This essay is an English translation of Zeus A. Salazar’s “Pantayong Pananaw como discurso civilizacional,” published in Revista Filipina, Segunda Etapa, Spring 2015, vol. 2, no. 2. I have retained Salazar’s Filipino terminology because the distinctions among tayo, kami, kayo, and sila are fundamental to the argument. Apparent chronological anomalies are corrected. My own annotations…
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Batanes in Moby Dick (1851)
One of the lesser-known Philippine references in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851) appears in Chapter CXI, “The Pacific.” As the Pequod leaves the waters of East Asia, Melville writes: “When gliding by the Bashee isles we emerged at last upon the great South Sea.” The “Bashee Isles” are the present-day Batanes Islands of the northern Philippines,…
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1687: Basi, the sugarcane wine that gave Batanes its European name
William Dampier gives an eye-opening account of how Batanes got its European name. “Bashee Islands” derives from basi, the traditional fermented sugarcane drink associated especially with Northern Luzon. Here is my translation of the Dutch edition (where the now famous engraving appears) of Dampier’s account: “Their common drink is water, like that of all the…
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Rembrandt’s only still life print is of a Philippine shell (1650)
Notice: This post is accompanied by a Facebook Reel in the hyperlink below. Full English translation below for international followers To celebrate West Philippine Sea Victory Day, I want to share an artwork that will give us even more motivation to protect our territorial waters. The title of this work is The Shell, and it…
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A Dutch Print of Batanes, Philippines (1698)
A recent report says Chinese scholars at a 30 June 2026 symposium at Jinan University claimed that China has sovereignty over Batanes, describing the islands as a “natural geographical extension” of Taiwan. Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro rejected the claim as baseless and ludicrous, while the Department of Foreign Affairs stated that Philippine sovereignty over…
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Juan Luna at Casa-Museu José Benlliure
Valencia, Spain— Five little-known works by Juan Luna remain in the Casa-Museu José Benlliure, far from the Philippine collections that usually define his career. Four are catalogued under his name, while a fifth watercolor carries a tentative attribution: Sacerdotisa (1883), Retrato de María Benlliure Ortiz niña con abrigo azul (1884), Poblado filipino (c. 1880), Paisaje…
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The Polar Bear at Manila Zoo (1959)
The Manila Zoological and Botanical Garden opened on 25 July 1959 as a municipal institution. It replaced earlier animal collections in Manila that had disappeared during the Philippine-American War. A historical survey published in Zoo and Aquarium History describes the postwar zoo as remaining largely unchanged for several decades. A redevelopment plan was prepared only…
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Goya’s Drawing of an Elephant from Manila
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828) was a Spanish Romantic painter and printmaker. He is regarded as one of the most important Spanish artists of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His paintings, drawings, and engravings reflected the political and social upheavals of his time and had a major influence on later European…
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Josef Selleny’s View of Manila, 1858
When Josef Selleny visited Manila in 1858 as part of the Austrian Novara expedition, the city was a busy Spanish colonial port defined by walls, churches, cigar factories, river traffic, and the movement of hemp, tobacco, and other commodities. Shipping on the Pasig River at Manila belongs to this moment of maritime activity. Signed with…