Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho, 1884 by Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo

About the artwork Painted in 1884 and awarded the silver medal at the Exposicion General de Bellas Artes in Madrid, this large-scale oil depicts two early Christian women stripped and presented before a crowd of Roman men in a stone dungeon setting. The subject draws from the Roman persecution of Christians and was interpreted by contemporaries, including Jose Rizal, as an allegory of Filipino suffering under colonial rule. The copy held by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is considered a national treasure; the original was destroyed in a fire at the University of Valladolid in Spain. About the artist Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo was a Filipino painter and reformist who trained at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. His silver medal at the 1884 Madrid Exposition, alongside Juan Luna's gold for the Spoliarium, marked one of the most significant achievements in 19th-century Philippine art history.