In Francisco Goya’s painting Junta de Filipinas, sinister, shadowy figures preside over a stockholders’ meeting of the Royal Philippine Company. What was this Royal Philippine Company—and what was so important about it that Goya made a painting of one of its meetings? And more than that, what was Goya trying to say about this tumultuous period in Spanish and Philippine history?

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My voiceover partner-in-crime, Anya, is on leave this week, so I’ll be reading quotes from references and sources. When she’s able to record her lines, I’ll update the episode to include them.

Additional audio from the Ville de Castres YouTube page, and The Social Network, © 2010 Columbia Pictures.

References:

Legarda, Benito J. (1999). After the Galleons: Foreign Trade, Economic Change and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines. Ateneo de Manila Press.

Miranda-Chou, Teresita (1996). “Art as Political Subtext: A Philippine Centennial Perspective on Francisco Goya’s Junta de la Real Compañía de Filipinas.” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, 24, pp. 187-215.

Alford, Roberta M. (June 1960). “Francisco Goya and the Intentions of the Artist.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 18(4), pp. 482-493.

Ville de Castres (26 April 2022). “L'OEUVRE A LA LOUPE : La Junte des Philippines #1.” [Video] YouTube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdv9bs207cs

Prodger, Michael (26 September 2015). “From princes to paupers: how Goya’s portraits tell the story of Spain.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/26/francisco-de-goya-portraits-national-gallery-london

Dalrymple, William (2019). The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company. Bloomsbury Publishing.

The sunken gunboats resurrected by the Americans were only a small part of the bloody war waged by the new occupiers against the Meranaw! (Listen to S6E8 before listening to this one.)

As Spain departed the Philippines, it abandoned four gunboats to a watery grave. For years, they slumbered at the bottom of Lake Lanao, their existence only a rumor back up on the surface. But when the Americans arrive in Marawi, they are determined to bring these ghost ships back to life.

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References:

Hitt, Parker (February 1938). “Amphibious Infantry—A Fleet on Lake Lanao.” US Naval Institute Proceedings, pp. 1-6.

Mastura, Datu Michael Ong (2023). The Rulers of Magindanao in Modern History, 1515–1903: Continuity and Change in a Traditional Realm in the Southern Philippines. Ateneo de Manila University Press.

Ibrahim, Noralia U. & Ali, Abubacar A. (January 2023). “A Short History of Lanao and the Origin and Arts of their Traditional Weaponry.” International Journal of Recent Advances in Multidisciplinary Topics, 4(1), pp. 73-81.

Mitiuckov, Nick (1996-2023). “Spanish 3rd Class Gunboats.” Spanish American War Centennial Website. https://www.spanamwar.com/span3rdclassgunboats.htm

Teideman, Jess. “The bends: anatomy of decompression sickness.” Australian Geographic.

Naga, Pipilawan O. (2011) “Lake Lanao: An Ancient Lake in Distress.” Shiga University Environmental Research Center Annual Research Report, 8(1), pp. 25-33.