Botong Francisco’s paintings at PGH find new home

Four of the best-kept secrets among art enthusiasts in Manila are the monumental oil paintings by National Artist Carlos V. Francisco entitled “The Progress of Medicine in the Philippines," which have been quietly keeping an eye on thousands of poor patients and dedicated health professionals passing through the humid and crowded main foyer of a public hospital for a long time.

On Sept. 21, the four-panel paintings will be declared a national treasure for being an “irreplaceable part of the institutional heritage of the Philippine General Hospital and the University of the Philippines, and of the cultural heritage of the nation."

Also on Wednesday, the little-known panels will be formally unveiled as the permanent exhibit at the elegant Museum Foundation of the Philippines Hall, the newest of the 11 galleries at the National Museum that are now open to the public.

Last July 23, National Museum director Jeremy Barns led a team that removed the original four panels from the PGH foyer, where they had remained for 58 years, and installed the reproductions done by photographer and art expert Benigno Toda III.

Four days later, the original paintings were mounted at the National Museum. The oil-on-canvas panels measuring 2.92 meters by 2.76 meters depict the history and development of medicine in the country from the pre-colonial period, the Spanish colonial period, the American Occupation era, and the modern era of the 1950s.

Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador, the National Museum technical adviser for research and museology, noted that the paintings are “the least written about of all the artistic works of Carlos V. Francisco."

Labrador sought to erase misperceptions that the panels are murals and not paintings. “Murals are defined as paintings done directly on the wall and have been conceived as integral to the architecture. These paintings are not murals since they have been commissioned in 1953, 43 years after the PGH opened to the public. The paintings are also movable, having been relocated from the PGH lobby to the National Museum," she said.

Botong Francisco genuinely deserves all the attention that the National Museum is giving him these days. After all, it was the institution that first crowned Botong nationally for his artistry.

On July 1948, Botong bagged the grand prize for his “Kaingin" painting during the historic 1st national exhibit of the Art Association of the Philippines held at the National Museum. The victory signified that the local art establishment had officially acknowledged his talent as one of the country’s premier artists.

Born on Nov. 4, 1912 in Angono, Rizal to a family of modest means, Botong disheartened painter Fabian dela Rosa, the first dean of the UP School of Fine Arts, when his brilliant student from 1930 to 1935 dropped out one semester short of graduation due to poverty.

Some of the priceless pieces done by Botong, Francisco’s nickname given to him after an olive-skinned person in Cainta, Rizal, who went with the same moniker, are found in the short stretch of downtown Manila from Pedro Gil Street to the Manila City Hall complex.

The St. Paul University–Manila Campus has the majestic “The Evolution of Philippine Culture" at its renovated Fleur-de-lis Theater.

Botong’s colorful “Musikong Bumbong" was once a centerpiece of the Manila Hotel’s Fiesta Pavilion while the Far Eastern University campus in Manila has his “Stations of the Cross."

At the Manila City Hall, then-Mayor Antonio Villegas commissioned Botong to execute a mural on the four walls of the building’s Bulwagang Katipunan. Botong came up with the sweeping pictorial “History of Manila," starting from the earliest dealings of the natives with Chinese traders up to the rebuilding of the city. This was his last work before he died on March 31, 1969.

Botong was conferred the National Artist Award in painting on June 12, 1973. Part of his citation read: “To the poet of Angono, no painter of his time was more closely attuned to the spirit of his land and people."

He was one of the seven artists to join classical painter Fernando C. Amorsolo, the only National Artist declared when the honor was introduced in 1972, in the second batch elevated to the pantheon of Philippine arts. “In his hands, craft and vision fused," the citation for Botong read.