04-016 [Misc.]
1879.10.15 Madrid
From: Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo
To: Jose Rizal
The School of Fine Arts has good professors but lacks adequate facilities. The Museo del Prado is marvelous.
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Madrid, 15 October 1879
DEAR FRIENDS RIZAL AND ANZON,
I write you in the same letter because I suppose that what I may tell one will be exactly the same as what I can tell the other. Moreover I have always considered you like Orestes and Pylades, Castor and Pollux, and other personages that are almost twins.[1]
You have us here as students of the Academy[2]attending all classes of its School of Fine Arts. We enter with a certain diffidence and why deny it, with a little fear, but upon seeing here the work of the students of the Academy, we lost our fear. On the other hand, we were greatly disenchanted because we would have liked to have as classmates people who have more mettle than the ones now attending the school for they would have served as a stimulus to us.
Our professor in the class of ancient painting and drapery from 8 to 10 in the morning is Mr. Espalter; in that of coloring and composition from 10 to 12 in the morning, Mr. Federico Madrazo; in that of pictorial anatomy from 1 to 2 in the afternoon, Mr. Ignacio llanos; and in that of the natural from 6:30 to 8:30 in the evening, Mr. Carlos Ribera.
They are all very good professors, but you can be very sure that what you can study there[3] under Mr. Agustin Saez is exactly the same as what is taught here, neither more nor less, with the difference that there you paint and draw much more comfortably than we do here, because there you have the entire hall at your disposal, while we here can hardly pick up a bad corner, often enveloped in darkness, and we have to stretch our necks to sec the model who, parenthetically speaking, is almost always quite poor, though very suitable for the study of the deviations of the human form.
I thank you for your congratulations. May God will that the day come when I shall truly deserve them. In the meanwhile, do not lose your courage and follow the advice of our dear professor Mr. Agustin Saez and in that way you will advance greatly in such a difficult study as that of painting.
I do not want to tell you about the Museum[4]because I have no more time. I will only tell you that it contains the most valuable collection of paintings, more than 3,000, that is found in Europe. One leaves that building with a headache and despair in the soul, because one is convinced of the little he knows, that one is not even an atom compared with those colossi of art. I suppose that you must have received the books that you ordered through me. At the first opportunity I shall send to Anzon the books that I did not find at Bailly Bailliere. Give very many regards on my behalf to my fellow martyrs of painting, including the amateurs, and pardon this badly written letter because I am very tired after eight hours of work daily and besides I have had to answer eight letters. As always command your friend and former comrade,
F. Resurreccion[5]
[1] In the original: cambales. Cambales is from the Tagalog word cambal meaning twins. In the Tagalog language “s”is not added to form the plural; cambales is therefore the Hispanized plural form of the word.
[2] He refers to the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando at Madrid.
[3] That is, the Academia de Dibujo Y Pintura located within the walls of Intramuros, Manila.
[4] This is the Museo del Prado at Madrid.
[5] Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo (1855-1813) is one of the celebrated painters of the Philippines.