National Museum of Fine Arts. A Day at the Museum. A Virtual Tour
3 Video Views·Jan 17, 2026
The National Museum of Fine Arts is Philippine premier museum for art works spanning 500 years. It contains thousands of paintings, sculptures, prints, murals, religious images made by Filipino artists including by National Artists.
The highlight of the visit to this museum is Juan Luan's Spoliarium which won first prize in Madrid Exposition in 1884. Another highlight is Juan Luan's Parisian Life which was purchased for the amount of almost 50 million pesos few years ago.
The museum recently acquired the Core Collection of 1974 from the Philippine Center in New York, and the are now on a homecoming exhibit on the 3rd floor.
The museum is located inside the Old Legislative Building. The museum is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 9am to 6pm. Free entrance but visitors need to bring IDs and vaccination cards.
For seniors, students, Filipinos living in the provinces, OFWs and others who cannot visit the museum personally, I created this virtual tour of the 29 galleries of the Museum of Fine Arts.
Please enjoy!
Hello ladies and gentlemen we are now here at the National Museum
Complex and will be exploring the National Museum of Fine Arts
So let's find out the history of that
building which is a legislative building and
then we'll go inside to visit the galleries
and take a closer look at the collections
And then let's find out what's currently on
exhibit at the National Museum of Fine Arts
So Tara come with me as we
step inside the National Museum of Fine Arts
The National Museum of Fine Arts houses 29 galleries and corridor exhibitions featuring
19th century Filipino masters national
artists leading painters sculptors and printmakers
The museum also features art loans from other government institutions organizations and private individuals
The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a m to 6 p
Admission to the museum is free—no payment
required—though visitors must present a valid
ID and vaccination card The museum is situated on Padre Borgo Street in Eremita Manila
The Museum of Fine Arts is housed within the historic legislative
building designed by Brock Harrington Duan Antonio Maniala Toledo and Juan M Arellano
and was constructed between
1918 and 1926 having witnessed various historic
milestones of the nation including the Constitutional Convention in 1934
and the inauguration of Manuel Luis Quezon as President of the Commonwealth Government in 1935
During the Second World War the building sustained heavy
damage when American forces bombarded it with artillery fire
The building was rebuilt in 1949 preserving the original footprint but
with a less ornate façade design
The first gallery is the Spolarium Hall
As you enter the hall you'll find Guillermo Tolentino's Diwata at the entrance
The hall is dominated by the Spolarium one of
the most monumental artworks in the Philippines
This work received a gold medal at the 1884 Madrid Exposition
The portrayal of Roman cruelty in the painting has been interpreted
as an allegory for the condition of the Philippines under Spanish rule
Another work on display is Felix Desreccion Hidalgo's
1984 painting The Assassination of Governor Bustamante
Behind the Spolarium lies Ankitok's Men at Work
Next is Gallery 1 featuring religious art from the 17th to the 19th centuries
Outside Gallery 1 is a collection of drawings from 1786
to 1797 by Juan de Colyar depicting Philippine plants
Gallery 3 features paintings from the Philippine Colonial Tradition of Sacred Art
Gallery 4 features paintings from the Philippine Colonial Tradition of Portraiture
Gallery 5 is a chamber devoted to Dr Jose Rizal
Gallery 6 features paintings by Los Dos Pintores Juan Luna and Felix Resurrección Hidalgo
The Parisian Life is one of Juan Luna's works created in Paris in 1892
The three men are actually Jose Rizal Ariston Bautista Lid and Juan Luna himself the image
of the courtesan bears a geographical resemblance to the mirror image of the Philippine map
She also appears to have been strangled as there is a mark across the top of her
head—this occurred during the period when the Philippines was under Spanish rule
Gallery 8 features paintings portraying the horrors of the Second
World War Gallery 10 is actually my favorite
It houses the works of National Artist Fernando Amorzolo
Gallery 9 features portraits from the early 20th century in the Philippines
Gallery 11 features more than 100 sketches by National Artist Fernando Amorzolo
The Session Hall of the Senate of the Philippines features the
1968 painting by National Artist Carlos Botong Francisco titled Filipino Struggles Through History
a commissioned artwork by Mayor Antonio Villegas for the City Hall of Manila
It portrays the enduring story of the Filipino people across the centuries
Gallery 13 features the works of Cesar Legazpi and Napoleon Abueva
Gallery 14 is devoted to the pillars of
Philippine Modernism Gallery 16 features a series of four large-scale paintings
titled The Progress of Medicine in the Philippines by Carlos Botong Francisco
commissioned in 1953 for the entrance hall of the Philippine General Hospital
Gallery 18 continues the pillars of Philippine Modernism
Gallery 19 also houses the pillars of Philippine
Modernism Gallery 22 showcases two large paintings by National Artist Vicente
Mananzala commissioned by the International Research Institute in 1962
Gallery 23 honors Vicente Mananzala while Gallery
24 features seven large paintings by the same artist
commissioned in the 1960s for the Pilam Light Auditorium in Manila
On the third-floor lobby stands Guillermo Tolentino's work titled Venus A new addition to
the Museum of Fine Arts is the Hobgoblin Exhibition by the Philippine Center in New York
core collection of 1974
These are the 115 artworks out of the 120 selected by former
Press Lady Imelda Marcos for the Philippine Center in New York
Gallery 29 features modern sculptures from the Philippines
You'll see many works by National Artists of the Philippines of course the most
prominent is the Polarium by Juan Luna
which won the European Exhibition of 1884
which also includes another of his works Departure Light which holds deep significance
Let's explain what it truly means
And then we saw numerous works by Fernando Amorzolo
We also saw large murals from the PGA
the International Rice Research Institute and also from Pilam
Light We also saw sculptures created by Filipino artists And then one of the highlights would be
Finally we saw 115 of the 120 artworks displayed in 1974 at the
Philippine Center in New York So overall it was a great adventure
I hope you saw and appreciated the works of our Filipino artists there 's
still so much to explore and we'll be visiting them at the museum
In the meantime once again I'd like to thank you for watching this
vlog I'm sorry we can't film inside the galleries as it's not permitted
I hope we managed to include some paintings derived from photos and some of the
other artworks inside and we also presented
the history of this legislative building
From the time it was built in the 1920s until it became the National Museum of Fine Arts of the Philippines it has stood as a testament to the nation's artistic heritage
Once again thank you so much for watching
Travel while you can
If you have time be sure to visit the National Museum
It's open from Tuesday to Sunday
In the meantime until our next vlog
Thank you so much for
watching Salamat