Palacio de Cristal

Spotted: After Google Image Search, 30 August 2018

"Palacio de Cristal" by Fernando Zobel (or Fernando Zóbel de Ayala y Montojo de Torróntegui) is published on the online catalog of Salcedo Auctions. Zobel was born on 24 August 1924 in Manila, left the country to permanently settle in Spain in 1960 and devote his life to painting. The artwork's most likely referring to the Palacio de Cristal ("Crystal Palace") in Buen Retiro Park in Madrid, built in 1887 to hold the Exposition of the Philippines. In a 10 August [2010?] article by the now defunct blog and e-zine Ang Bagong Filipino:

José Rizal was touring Europe in 1887 when Spain still ruled the Philippines. He was infuriated about the news that a group of Igorots was brought to Madrid for the Exposición de las Islas Filipinas, held in the city’s Zoological Garden. 

For many years, he had worked towards a Philippine Exposition in Madrid which would attract Spain’s attention to the products and handicrafts of the Philippines - "but not on exposition of persons so the lazy inhabitants of Madrid might amuse themselves through this display of our country folk as curiosity."

Could our national hero Rizal rolled in his grave as many times as these kinds of exhibition were staged again and again? At least three more after this were cited by the blog post - St. Louis, Missouri (1904), Seattle, Washington (1909), and Ghent, Belgium (1913).

Ah, history learning. We should always have the time and the space for it in our lives. The month of August per Proclamation No. 339 is National History Month, signed by former President Benigno S. Aquino III in 2012.


[This post is antedated: 20180831]