Where are Guillermo Tolentino's "Rizal's Dreams" and other patriotic works?

Guillermo Tolentino could have created "Rizal's Dreams" when he was still a student at the Royal Italian Academy of Fine Arts or when he had just graduated from there with honors.  A young Filipina woman looking far away was his sculptural interpretation of the fourth stanza of the national hero's Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell) --

Mis sueños cuando apenas muchacho adolescente,
Mis sueños cuando joven ya lleno de vigor,
Fueron el verte un día, joya del mar de oriente
Secos los negros ojos, alta la tersa frente,
Sin ceño, sin arrugas, sin manchas de rubor.

My dreams, when life first opened to me,
My dreams, when the hopes of youth beat high,
Were to see thy loved face, O gem of the Orient Sea,
From gloom and grief, from care and sorrow free;
No blush on thy brow, no tear in thine   eye.
          -  Tr. by Charles Derbyshire, 1911.

Tolentino could have included this work in his sculpture exhibition that opened at the Casa d'Arte in Rome on April 24, 1924.  It was reported that "the Royal Princesses, Giovanna and Mafalda, paid Tolentino the honor of attending his exhibition, and were lavish in their praises of his work, obtaining for the young Filipino sculptor considerable favourable publicity in the Rome newspapers and art journals."

We have not yet seen any reference to this inspired creation in existing webpages about the National Artists of the Philippines, in general, or Guillermo Tolentino, in particular. 

Except for an article in The Philippine Republic (1924), there is nothing else also on the "Peace" statue that he did while he was a waiter in Washington DC to commemorate American President Woodrow Wilson's struggle for peace, and which he presented to the president himself on August 21, 1921.  

Millinoire Bernard Baruch was inspired to send the struggling Filipino artist to study in Italy after Wilson showed him the art piece. He paid for Tolentino's expenses there for two years. 

Neither are there references to his patriotic creations in Rome that could have been in his public exhibition there in 1924 like "The Philippine Republic" and "The Filipinos."  The first one had three figures, one of them representing a Filipina and the other two, the forces that saved the Philippines from the Spaniards. Tolentino intended this for consideration in a proposed monument in Malolos, Bulacan to commemorate the short-lived republic.  The second piece represented "a group of powerful Filipinos, who by their united strength, are able to successfully carry a great rock on which appears in bas relief a map of the Philippine Islands."

Tolentino could also have carved "The Philippines" in Rome, it's picture was in the cover of the January 1924 issue of The Philippine Republic.  The caption said that it was "the creation of a young Filipino sculptor, Guillermo Tolentino. He molded it with loving hands, inspired by the hope it might prove (sic) an urge to the American Congress to grant his country’s independence."

After his graduation in Italy, Tolentino made plans to go home to the Philippines soonest and possibly put up an exhibition in Manila.  It would be very interesting to know if the works exhibited in Casa d'Arte in Rome came home with him, and if they did, where are they now?

A report said that "Tolentino has been made a tentative proposition to design an elaborate and costly chapel and monument to be erected in the Manila Cemetery for one of the most prominent and wealthy families of the Philippines."   This could not have pushed through because there are no citations of it in any Tolentino literature.  Otherwise this would be listed alongside his popular statues -- the Oblation of the University of the Philippines (UP) and the Bonifacio monument in Caloocan City.

The Oblation, dedicated at the original UP site in Manila in 1939, was inspired by the second verse in Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios --

          En campos de batalla, luchando con delirio
          Otros te dan sus vidas sin dudas, sin pesar;
          El sitio nada importa, ciprés, laurel ó lirio,
          Cadalso ó campo abierto, combate ó cruel martirio,
          Lo mismo es si lo piden la patria y el hogar.

          On the field of battle, 'mid the frenzy of fight,
          Others have given their lives, without doubt or heed;

          The place matters not-cypress or laurel or lily white,

          Scaffold or open plain, combat or martyrdom's plight,
          'Tis ever the same, to serve our home and country's need.

                -  Tr. by Charles Derbyshire, 1911.

What we see today at the back of the pedestal are not these inspirational verses in Spanish or English.  It's Rizal speaking in Pilipino through the translation (pagsasalin) of Andres Bonifacio:

Saan man mautas ay di kailangan,
cipres o laurel, lirio ma'y patungan
pakikipaghamok, at ang bibitayan,
yaon ay gayon din kung hiling ng Bayan.

Here in these sculptures, we see Tolentino portraying a Motherland as a young Filipina embodying Rizal's dreams, happy after being freed from Spanish tyranny and yet fettered in struggling for independence from the United States, and her native son offering his life for country and people.

There has been a very wide gulf of changes since Tolentino's patriotic statements in stone, marble or bronze. Are they still relevant to ponder as the May 2010 election approaches.  Has the Motherland achieved her dreams? Is she happy--or frustrated--with her sons?

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Note:  Except for the picture of the UP Oblation, which we took ourselves, all the other illustrations and historical information in this article about National Artist Guillermo Tolentino were taken from articles in the January, May and August-September 1924 issues of The Philippine Republic, a magazine published in Washington DC.

Where's the Rizal bust installed in Washington DC in 1925?

We came across the Rizal bust (photo above, encircled in red) in The Philippine Republic in its special Rizal Number of December 1925.  Published in Washington DC as 'the magazine that's "telling America" about Filipinos and the new Philippines,' it had Jose Rizal as the iconic symbol in its strong advocacy for Philippine independence.

"At last," the magazine enthused, "there is a beautiful bust of Rizal on display in Washington, America’s capital. It has been placed at the Philippine Press Bureau, 905 Investment building, and will ever be a source of increased inspiration to the Filipinos of Washington."

"The bust," the report continued, "was brought to Washington by the Philippine delegation from Manila, the work of sculptor Velarde, and the direct result of the enterprise of the Filipino Community Center of Washington, D.C."  It would be the first ever to be unveiled in that city.

Prominent Filipinos and Americans were present during the the installation ceremonies.  Then Senator Sergio Osmena,  chairman of the Commission on Independence, was there, so was Hon. Teodoro M. Kalaw, executive secretary and chief adviser of the Commission, who delivered the dedication address. 

We tried googling Velarde's bust of Rizal with a lyre to see if there are references to it and its whereabouts at this time, but there was nothing at all.  We also tried to see if Velarde became well-known like Guillermo Tolentino, who was studying in Italy around that time.  The search also did not yield an answer.

What we saw were references to Rizal busts in cities around the world like the one installed at the Plaza Filipinas in Santiago, Chile; Earl Bales Park in Toronto, Canada; North Beacon Hill in Seattle, Washington; Piazzale Manila in Rome, Italy (inaugurated as part of the centennial celebration of Philippine Independence in May 1998); and Rizal Park in Lima, Peru (Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was guest during the unveiling in November 2008), among others. 

Our interesting google finds were two busts (pictures below) done by two well-known sculptors--Guillermo Tolentino and Anastacio Caedo.

Patrick Eugenio bought the bust on the left from a Cubao thrift shop in 2006.  He learned that this was Guillermo Tolentino's gift to Caedo, his apprentice at that time and his model for this work. Caedo would also be his model for the UP Oblation. 

We found the Rizal bust on the right from the blogsite of Danny Villegas. He says that this is the original marble bust that Caedo sculpted, and it was found in the sculptor's original atelier.  It would be interesting to know how many copies were molded from this for displays in public plazas, schools and city or town building, etc.

We did not know who Rizal was when we first saw his bust mounted on a column probably thrice taller than us at the center of our hometown plaza.  We were in high school when it had to be moved when the municipal auditorium was relocated to the plaza itself.  Rizal now adorns one side of the auditorium.  This bust does not look like Caedo's hence it must have been molded from another sculptor's work.

During our vacation in California last year, a good friend in Torrance said he will bring us to their Luneta.  We thought there was really a place of that name in Carson City until we saw a bust of Rizal mounted on a low pedestal (picture at left) facing the Seafood City and Chow King restaurants on Main St., at the edge of a parking lot.

This Rizal monument serves as the gathering or meeting place of Filipinos in the area. We were not told if commemorative ceremonies are performed there during Rizal Days or Indepence Day.

This one does not look like Caedo's.  It has no lyre like the 1925 bust of Velarde.

We learned that the Investment building in Washington DC was completed in 1924, the year before Velarde's work was installed there. Years later, the building was remodelled with only the outer shell retained. That means that the Philippine Press Bureau moved to another place with the Rizal bust. How many times did they transfer through the years? Where was the bust finally got deposited?