Right before I went to Loney Port to leave Iloilo for Bacolod, I dropped by Museo Iloilo, the provincial museum located near the new provincial capitol building. The building of the museum as seen from the road is not the usual structure that made it more interesting to check out.
The museum opens at 9 in the morning with an entrance fee of Php 25. The first area that caught my eyes was the painting gallery on the left upon entry. Members of the staff are very welcoming that they ask everyone where they came from and how’s the trip going to Iloilo.
The museum is not that wide but is enough to showcase and preserve the unique art, culture, and history of the province. I started my museum tour in the painting gallery. Painting that caught my attention was the “Ulilang Lubos” by Edgar Gonzales depicting three children on a river with the oldest carrying their youngest sibling. The painting is treated ink in leatherette having only a single color.
Another exhibit features sculptures such as “Aninipay”, made of wood, semi-precious stone of the island like jade, amethyst, geode, and quartz created by Eric Tacorda and “Music of Love”, a limestone sculpture by Joe Amora.
Since Iloilo has magnificent baroque churches and the people are known to have a strong faith, the section of the museum also displays different sizes of religious figures.The image below is a late 18th-century high relief carving in hardwood originally polychromed showing traces of gesso. The relief depicting the conversion of San Agustin, a heretic, to Christianity. The scene shows the penitent convert before the crucified Christ with Sta. Monica, shown with a bare breast probably recalling how she nourished her son with her milk.
Other things being preserved and displayed in the museum:
Sorry for not describing some of the museum exhibits mentioned above because I wasn’t able to get more information from the staff since I was in a hurry to catch my ferry reservation going to Bacolod.
