Portrait Of Saint Pedro Calungsod By Rafael Del Casal

Finally came back from the house of fellow artist and friend Rafael del Casal. He is, in fact, my favorite Filipino painter. I asked him to make me a VERY faithful copy of his portrait of the second Filipino saint, Saint Pedro Calungsod, for our family altar. It is, to me, the painting that made him internationally famous. It was chosen by Ricardo Cardinal Vidal as the official portrait that was sent to the Vatican, on which the huge mosaic was based.

It took him a slow, one and a half years to finish this painting for me. Like me, he doesn't like repeating his works, and will most likely not do this for anyone else again.

The portrait, as yet unframed, temporarily rests on our family altar.

This and succeeding photos from the Internet. Above: The original portrait, now in the archdiocese of Cebu.

Succeeding photos show how the image has been used for a variety of purposes:

The portrait reproduced in mosaic for the Vatican:

Useless controversy. After the portrait was publicized in the Philippines, malicious rumor was spread by the envious because the portrait was modeled by a basketball player. But, so what? All of the Renaissance and post-Renaissance portraits of the saints were based on models.

It is unfortunate that the rumor-mongers did not use the actual photograph that Rafael used, that of a young and innocent-looking youth named Ronald Tubid.