Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist

ABOUT THE WORK

Now a dying man, Elias tells Basilio to burn his mother’s remains along with his and entrusts him with the treasure. Before expiring, Elias speaks to Basilio some of the most famous lines from the novel. This is the scene captured by Amorsolo’s painting. In essence this was José Rizal’s exhortation to the Filipino Youth, “I die without seeing the dawn break on my country…. You who are about to see it, greet her… do not forget those who have fallen during the night.” Elias raises his eyes to heaven in a prayer and slowly falls to the ground. According to José Alejandrino, who was with Rizal while he was publishing the novel in Belgium, Rizal regretted killing Elias. He did not think he would be able to write a sequel and talk of a revolution. Rizal told him, “Otherwise I would have preserved the life of Elias, who was a noble character, patriotic, self-denying and disinterested – necessary qualities in a man who leads a revolution – whereas Crisostomo Ibarra was an egotist who only decided to provoke the rebellion when he was hurt in his interests… with men like him, success cannot be expected in their undertakings.” Basilio, carried on to the second novel El Filibusterimo to become a student and a reformer. Historian José Victor Torres argues that the real “filibustero” Rizal was referring to was not Simoun, but the Filipino Youth, exemplified by Basilio, who would be waging a revolution not to destroy, but to change the country. The painting is important not just because it was a National Artist’s take on the National Hero’s work, but because it depicts two of the most important characters in Philippine Literary History with the symbol of the motherland. The scene is both tragic but also hopeful.