Module 5

Title: The Political Cartoons

Political cartoons can be very funny, especially if you understand the
issue that they’re commenting on. Their main purpose, though, is not
to amuse you but to persuade you. A good political cartoon makes
you think about current events, but it also tries to sway your opinion
toward the cartoonist’s point of view. The best political cartoonist
can change your mind on an issue without you even realizing how he
or she did it.
Alfred McCoy • Born June 8, 1945
(Author/Creator) • Professor of History at the University
of Wisconsin who specializes in S.E.
Asia
• Graduated from the Kent School in 1964;
earned his B.A. from Columbia College and
his Ph.D. in Southeast Asian history from Yale
University in 1977
• In 2001, was awarded the Grant Goodman
Prize for his career contributions to the study
of the Philippines by the Association for Asian
Studies
• In October 2012, was awarded the
Wilbur Lucius Cross Medall by Yale
University's Graduate School Alumni
Association.
Alfredo Roces
(Contributor/Book Designer)
• Born on April 29, 1932 (Sta. Cruz, Manila)
• Married Irene Pineda on May 24, 1958 and
has three daughters
• A gifted artist-writer
• Author of "Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo and
the Generation of 1972“, the National Book
Award-winning title
• Lost his job in 1972 when Manila Times
closed down but begged off jobs in Marcos’
papers
• Became editor-in-chief of the Filipino
Heritage, a ten-volume study on Philippine
History and Culture until 1978
• Currently a freelance artist and writer, Alfredo
or Ding, as he is fondly called, has been
living in Australia since 1977.
 ALFRED MCCOY’t
PHILIPPINE CARTOONS:
POLITICAL CARICATURE
OF ”THE AMERICAN ERA
(1DOO - 1941)
What can we learn from a political cartoon?

YULem tryimg to Ckmñ out abom£ experiences of

people livimg inn tLe past, irrlages sucL as
etcLimgs, sketches, cartoons, pLotOgrapLs amñ
paimtimgs frorrl tirrle tO tirrle cam be very
efxil. TLey are prirrlary sources amñLave
lirrlitatiOms, buttLey are also
irrl@ortamt sources of attitudes, fears,
values amñ propagamña.
Cartoonists’ persuasive techniques
Cartoonists use several methods, or techniques, to get their
point across. Not every cartoon includes all of these techniques,
but most political cartoons include at least a few. Some of the
techniques cartoonists use the most are symbolism,
exaggeration, labeling, analogy, and irony. Once you learn to
spot these techniques, you’ll be able to see the cartoonist’s
point more clearly. You should also be aware of any political
slant, or bias, that he or she might have. When you know where
the cartoonist is coming from, it’s easier to make up your own
mind. You might also start watching out for the persuasive
techniques used in other media, such as political ads and TV
news programs. There are a lot of people out there trying to
change your mind – it’s a good idea to be aware of how they’re
doing it.
Persuasive tech nipues used in ca rtaans
Exaggeration

Irc›ry
EXAGGERATION- Minsan ang mga cartoonista ay labis na labis, o pinalalaki, ang mga
pisikal na katangian ng mga tao o mga bagay upang makagawa ng isang punto. Kapag
nag-aral ka ng isang cartoon, maghanap ng anumang mga katangian na tila labis na labis o
labis na pamumuno. (Ang mga katangiang pang-mukha at pananamit ay ilan sa mga
pinaka-karaniwang pinalaking katangian.) Pagkatapos, subukang magpasya kung anong
punto ang sinusubukang gawin ng cartoonist sa pamamagitan ng pagmamalabis.
SYMBOLISM-Gumagamit ang mga cartoonista ng mga simpleng
bagay, o simbolo, upang panindigan ang mas malalaking konsepto o
ideya. Matapos mong makilala ang mga simbolo sa isang cartoon, isipin
ang tungkol sa kung ano ang balak ng cartoonist na tumayo para sa
bawat simbolo
LABELING-Kadalasang nilalagyan ng mga cartoonista ang mga bagay o tao
upang linawin nang eksakto kung ano ang paninindigan nila.
ANALOGY- Ang isang pagkakatulad ay isang paghahambing sa pagitan ng
dalawang hindi katulad ng mga bagay na nagbabahagi ng ilang mga katangian. Sa
pamamagitan ng paghahambing ng isang komplikadong isyu o sitwasyon sa isang
mas pamilyar, maaaring matulungan ng mga cartoonista ang kanilang mga
mambabasa na makita ito sa ibang paraan.
IRONY O KABALINTUNAAN- Ang kabalintunaan ay ang pagkakaiba sa pagitan ng
mga paraan ng mga bagay at kung paano dapat ang mga bagay, o kung paano inaasahan
ang mga bagay. Ang mga cartoonista ay madalas na gumagamit ng kabalintunaan upang
ipahayag ang kanilang opinyon sa isang isyu. Kapag tiningnan mo ang isang cartoon,
tingnan kung makakakita ka ng anumang kabalintunaan sa sitwasyong inilalarawan ng
cartoon. Kung maaari mo, pag-isipan kung anong punto ang maaaring ipahiwatig ng
kabalintunaan. Nakatutulong ba ang kabalintunaan sa cartoonist na ipahayag ang kanyang
opinyon nang mas epektibo?
Tukuyin ang Letratong ito.
Butch Abella’s timeline
Module 6
Title: Works of Juan Luna and
Fernando Amorsolo
This lesson is richly involved in the study of arts also incorporates
fields like social history, aesthetics, economics, politics, and
anthropology. To these, it adds a particular attention to critical
looking, building core skills in analyzing how visual representation
of concrete scenario and events on the life of people in a specific
period in the past. Wherein this Historical paintings depicts the
realistic situations and scenario of the life’s of the people and are
instrumental to the visualization of the reality which stand equally
with texts, photos, caricatures, and films.
Juan Luna (1857 – 1899) is regarded for work done in the
manner of the Spanish, Italian and French academies of his time,
Luna painted literary and historical scenes, some with an
underscore of political commentary. His allegorical works were
inspired with classical balance, and often showed figures in
theatrical poses. He is best known for impressive rendition of
classical subjects in his academic works. These works include
historical scenes and portraiture, however subsequently he
turned to realism depicting social inequalities. In this lesson, the
“Spoliarium” and “The Parisian Life” are Luna’s presented for the
analysis of the students.
The painting features a glimpse of Roman history centered on
the bloody carnage brought by gladiatorial matches. Spoliarium
is a Latin word referring to the basement of the Roman
Colosseum where the fallen and dying gladiators are dumped
and devoid of their worldly possessions.

At the center of Luna’s painting are fallen gladiators being

dragged by Roman soldiers. On the left, spectators ardently
await their chance to strip off the combatants of their metal
helmets and other armory. In contrast with the charged emotions
featured on the left, the right side meanwhile presents a somber
mood. An old man carries a torch perhaps searching for his son
while a woman weeps the death of her loved one.

The Spoliarium is the most valuable oil-on-canvas painting by

Juan Luna, a Filipino educated at the Academia de Dibujo y
Pintura (Philippines) and at the Academia de San Fernando in
Madrid, Spain. With a size of 4.22 meters x 7.675 meters, it is
the largest painting in the Philippines. A historical painting, it
was made by Luna in 1884 as an entry to the prestigious
Exposicion de Bellas Artes (Madrid Art Exposition, May 1884)
and eventually won for him the First Gold Medal.
 Parisian Life (1892), by Filipino artist Juan Luna, features an interior
scene in a café with a woman seated prominently on a banquette and
three men at the far left corner. It fetched $859,924 at Christie’s
auction in Hong Kong in 2002, an exorbitant sum paid by the
Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the pension fund
institution of the Philippines.
The painting is a richly layered portrayal of contemporary social
norms, gender politics and national allegory. Formal and social
analyses reveal a woman, believed to be a prostitute, as the subject
of the male gaze. Women in Paris were increasingly seen as a threat
to the status quo. If they did not conform to the traditional role of
a femme honnête (respectable woman), they were seen as
the courtisane, or the prostitute. As a dangerous woman, the
prostitute bore the stigma of infecting men with venereal disease.

Parisian Life mirrors the constructions of masculinity and civility among the three men wearing European clothes, “part of a
larger attempt at nationalist self-fashioning”.2 Despite the civilized middle-class body, their brown faces disclose their
racial identity. They are identified as the Filipino patriots Jose Rizal, Juan Luna (frontal pose), and Ariston Bautista
(holding cane handle). They are fixed on the woman whose very appearance in a café is an erotic encounter itself. While
Luna’s self-portrait exhibits fatigue or even ennui, Bautista registers the curiosity and pleasure of a voyeur “in a fairly
lascivious way” tilting his head toward the sexually objectified cocotte who furtively acknowledges his gaze.3 Far from
heroic, Juan Luna brought to light the hypocrisy and duplicity of his milieu and the general anxiety against the prostitute.
Despite of and whether the black umbrella functions as a barricade or signifies the phallus, the conventional prostitute of
Parisian Life still approximates the familiar Old World—patriarchal—whose double standards Luna and the ilustrados
enjoyed.
 While Luna’s body of work crystallized the artistic and
economic negotiations he had to perform as a painter, his
life and home became the model of the divided self and the
imagined community. Contrary to nationalist historiography
and its grand, developmental narrative, the growth of the
new ‘Filipino’ consciousness was uneven, ambiguous, and
problematic. Moreover, the yet-to-be-‘Filipino’ was already
endangered. Although the prostitute personified the threat
of sexual corruption, moral disintegration and physical
death in Parisian Life, the latent fear of the ilustrados was
caused, in general, by women and, figuratively, by France.

In sum, Juan Luna’s Parisian Life is an Impressionist rendition of an

interior of a café inhabited by a cocotte, a dandy, and
three ilustrados in Haussmannized Paris. It can be read as an
ideological unveiling not only of late 19th-century French modernity,
but the “gait, glance, and gesture” of the other spectacle and myth that
it mirrors: the problematic and complex formation of the nation-state
and the scarcity and fetishism of the Filipino. Indeed, meaning, to echo
Jacques Derrida, is always “deferred”.
Fernando Amorsolo (1892 –1972) was one of the most
important artists in the history of painting in the
Philippines. Amorsolo was a portraitist and painter of
rural Philippine landscapes. He is popularly known for
his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light.
Delights people of his impressionistic technique
depicting idyllic country scene, beautiful maidens, and
colorfully dressed peasants planting or harvesting rice.
The Paintings are significant in the development of the
formation of Filipino notions of self and identity. In this
lesson, the “Antipolo Fiesta” and “Palay Maiden”
paintings are presented for analysis.
 this oil painting on canvas depicts a rural scene where a
group of people are shown celebrating a fiesta in Antipolo.
The main focus is on a pair of dancers in the field
surrounded by revelers both young and old. Abundant food
is presented in basketfuls of assorted fruits on the benches
and on the ground, as well as the traditional roasted pig or
lechon being prepared by two men. Nearby is a house with
huge windows from where dwellers watch the revelers. At
the background is a huge church, a symbolic town
structure. A vast number of townsmen completes the
essence of a fiesta.

It can be said that the pair of dancers are in the usual same pose as
those of dancers in Fernando Amorsolo’s various well-known
tinikling-related paintings. A viewer may be quick to surmise at a glance
that this painting belongs to that category, as the bamboo handlers in the
usual tinikling dance often blend in the crowd and are not easily
distinguished. However, there are no bamboo-handlers present in this
painting simply because the dancers are not performing the tinikling
dance. Thus, this indication is what makes this painting very unique.
 A closer look at this work will reveal brush strokes executed
with the ease of a virtuoso. The featured painting is
considered a masterpiece for the subtlety of its encoded
messages, which, in this case, has been described as
national pride. In stark contrast to the increasing
westernization of the urban capital Manila, this work is a
celebration of the pristine, rural Philippine countryside. The
scene is bathed in sunlight and features a country maiden.
This work is a fine example of this National Artist’s favorite
subject and setting. Amorsolo notes, “My conception of an
ideal Filipina beauty is one with a rounded face, not of the
oval type... The eyes should be exceptionally lively… The
Palay Maiden, 1920 (Dalagang Bukid) –
nose should be of the blunt form but firm and strongly
Fernando Amorsolo
marked… The ideal Filipino beauty should have a sensuous
This painting portrayals a provincial Filipina
mouth…not…white-complexioned, nor of the dark brown
beauty or dalagang bukid during a rice harvest
color…but of the clear skin…which we often witness when
and dressed and in and enveloped by the
we meet a blushing girl.” For Amorsolo, the Filipino beauty
colors of the Philippine flag.
was an important symbol of national identity. The colors of
the Philippine flag are evident in the blue kerchief, red skirt,
and white blouse. The subject gazes directly at the viewer,
holding a generous bundle of newly harvested rice, a
hope-filled moment for the young Philippines.
-END-