{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":41,"auction_id":1,"set_id":1,"lot_number":"171","artist":"José Rizal (1861 - 1896)","title":"Mi Retiro","starting_price":2000000,"signed_dated":"handwritten and signed by Jose Rizal himself <br />ca. 1895 - 1896","medium":"two leaves of graph paper with four pages with hand writing enveloped addressed “Para Sr Dr Pardo, Calle Centeno, No. 7”(for Señor Doctor Pardo (de Tavera)","size":"Leaf 1: 8 1/4” x 10 1/4” (21 cm x 26 cm) <br />Leaf 2: 8 1/4” x 10 1/4” (21 cm x 26 cm)<br />Envelope: 4 1/2” x 5 3/4” (11 cm x 15 cm)","property":"PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF TRINIDAD H. PARDO DE TAVERA","coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Rizal’s Mi Retiro His Message to the Filipino Nation<br /> \nby PROF. MICHAEL CHARLESTON “XIAO” BRIONES CHUA, PH.D. (CAND.) FILIPINO PUBLIC HISTORIAN<br /><br />\nRizal moved to come home from Europe in 1892 and he knew when he arrived in Manila that he might be arrested or worse. He wrote two letters to his family and to the Filipino people to be opened after his death. He was, most of all, self-aware of his place in history and it was time to face his destiny.<br /><br />It is true that three days after he arrived, he organized La Liga Filipina — and he was arrested on 6 June 1892. The Spanish colonial government did not execute him, at least not yet. They had other plans. They exiled him to Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte, which literally was the edge of the world. They wanted him to be isolated and battered until he surrendered his will to the whims of the colonizers. It was putting José Rizal in prison but without bars.<br /><br />But prison it was, and he did what he could to give life to the town. He became a single-man NGO who introduced, as Floro Quibyen noted: progressive education, social entrepreneurship and community development. In August 1893, his mother, Doña Teodora Alonso and his sister Maria joined him to live in Dapitan. He treated her eyesight and she was observed how much busier he actually had become. As noted by historians Gregorio and Sonia Zaide, his mother “regretted that he had neglected the Muses.” Before she left to go back for Manila in February 1895, she asked and encouraged her son to write poetry again.<br /><br />But it would take some time before he could fulfill her\nwishes. On 22 October 1895, Rizal sent the poem Mi Retiro\nto his mother along with another poem, Himno a Talisay,\nwhich would become a sort of anthem for his Dapitan\npupils, “Though I have no letter from you, nevertheless\nI write you thus, sending you the enclosed poem that\nI promised you. Many months have already passed but\nI have not been able to correct it yet on account of my\nnumerous tasks. Besides I follow the advice of Horace to\nlet manuscripts sleep a long time in order to correct them\nbetter later.”<br /><br />Some might feel that the verses are only the lengthy\nmusings — this is Rizal’s longest poem at 24 stanzas —\nof a lonely man, settled but never content. What makes\nthis deeply personal poem relevant to our country today\nis because the author, our National Hero, still found in\nhis hopeless situation the courage to dream of a better\nPhilippines. <br /><br />Rizal believed that the Idea — of liberty and freedom,\nand of the equality of all men — was the Idea that would\nultimately loosen the grip of the oppressors.<br /><br />Leon Ma. Guerrero, who himself was an excellent writer,\nwrote in one of the best biographies of Rizal, The First\nFilipino, “The verses for his mother, entitled - Mi Retiro are\nsome of his best.”<br /><br />But what makes this poem important aside from its\nauthorship, yet again, is the discourse, that surrounds it.<br /><br />Virgilio Almario, National Artist for Literature and the\ncountry’s foremost poet in his own right, examined Mi\nRetiro in his book “Rizal: Makata.”<br /><br />He asks that we look beyond the oversimplification that the\npoem is only about acceptance and finding joy in a limiting\nspace. He suggests that we look at how Rizal used the word\nRetiro to express a myriad of meanings: it meant retirement\nfrom long duty, it also meant retreat from battle, but in a\nreligious sense, it could also mean temporary respite from\nthe frenzied hurly burly of the city life to reflect about life.\nIt can also mean a look back to a life well-lived, a look\nback at the past and a physical return to once native or\nbeloved land. In this we find the deeper and more relevant\nmeanings of Mi Retiro. <br /><br />Rizal knew the fight was not yet over — and that somehow,\nthe wheels of history would continue to turn.<br /><br />It can be argued, as it is argued by Almario, that Mi Retiro\nis a twin sister of Rizal’s Mi Ultimo Adios. And it would be\nwrong, as other experts say, that in bettering Mi Retiro’s\nstanding would need to diminish Mi Ultimo Adios.<br /><br />The truth is both masterpieces are complementary and\ncan best be appreciated if taken together. They are what\nconstitutes Rizal’s long goodbye to the nation — and\ntogether pose an important message to all of us, its citizens.\nMi Ultimo Adios’s last line answers the last premise of Mi\nRetiro, “Morir es descansar”—to die is to repose, to retreat,\nto rest. Rizal had found peace in dying, because the “Idea”\nhad been brought forth. <br /><br />That Idea is ultimatly the Filipino Nation — a free Filipino\nnation. And he faced death courageously and valiantly,\nlike all martyrs and heroes, because all the sadness and\nsacrifices were all worth it. Reflecting on the poem is like\njoining Rizal in his Mi Retiro as we also look back at his\nindubitable contributions to the birth of our nation. It is the\nperfect touchstone for its 125th year. <br /><br />I<br /> see the heavens shining, as flawless and refulgent\nAs in the days that saw my first illusions start;\nI feel the same breeze kissing my autumnal brow,\nThe same that once enkindled my fervent enthusiasm\nAnd turned the blood ebullient within my youthful heart.<br /><br />— Jose Rizal, Excerpt from Mi Retiro, October 1895.\nTranlation by Nick Joaquin\n\n","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":4500000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":4500000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":5407200,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":193,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/1/1/lot/171.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":170,"next":172,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}