History Theatre / APortraitOfTheArtistAsFilipino

-->''Contra mundum!'' [[labelnote:Translation]]"Defy the world!"[[/labelnote]]

** Also the nameless American buyer that Tony Javier has purportedly found for the portrait.

Adapted a number of times into film: two examples include a 1965 black-and-white English version directed by Lamberto Avellana, and ''Ang Larawan'', a 2017 Tagalog version in full colour, directed by Loy Arcenas, starring West End veteran Joanna Ampil and Rachel Alejandro respectively as Candida and Paula Marasigan, and Paulo Avelino as Tony Javier.

* ChristianityIsCatholic: And a very old-school, [[GratuitousLatin Latin-speaking]], unapologetically Baroque kind of Catholic too. At the time Nick Joaquin finished it, the Second Vatican Council (a.k.a. Vatican II), which simplified, updated and modernised a lot of old Church traditions—most notably, it finally allowed Mass to be said in the vernacular—wouldn't convene yet for another decade (it would commence in TheSixties).

* TheCavalry: Don Lorenzo's old friends - Don Alvaro, Doña Upeng, Don Miguel, Doña Irene, and Don Aristeo - all attend Candida and Paula's party during the ''La Naval'' and help them face Manolo and Pepang.* ChristianityIsCatholic: And a very old-school, [[GratuitousLatin Latin-speaking]], unapologetically Baroque kind of Catholic too. At the time Nick Joaquin finished it, the Second Vatican Council (a.k.a. Vatican II), which simplified, updated and modernised a lot of old Church traditions—most notably, it finally allowed Mass to be said in the vernacular—wouldn't convene yet for another decade (it would commence in TheSixties).

* WatchingTroyBurn: Thematically this suffuses the whole play and the context for why it was written: an elegy by and for an entire generation that watched as colonial Manila, particularly Intramuros, burned. Nowhere is this more obvious than the direct ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheAeneid'', the very titular portrait showing Aeneas and his father escaping the actual Troy itself. (Though the portrait's actual appearance is left up to the audience in most stagings and almost so in the 2017 ''Ang Larawan'', the painting itself doesn't necessarily depict its subjects literally looking back at Troy; the 1965 monochrome version has them looking at the viewer.)

* ChristianityIsCatholic: And a very old-school, [[GratuitousLatin Latin-speaking]], unapologetically Baroque kind of Catholic too. At the time Nick Joaquin finished it, the Second Vatican Council (a.k.a. Vatican II), which simplified, updated and modernised a lot of old Church traditions—most notably, it finally allowed Mass to be said in the vernacular—wouldn't convene yet for another decade (it would commence in TheSixties).

* ForegoneConclusion

* TheCavalry: Don Lorenzo's old friends - Don Alvaro, Doña Upeng, Don Miguel, Doña Irene, and Don Aristeo - all attend Candida and Paula's party during the ''La Naval'' and help them face Manolo and Pepang.

* GorgeousPeriodDress: Especially true for more recent productions like the 2017 film. It's a perfect excuse for the cast to don ornate, gauzy ''ternos'' (Catholic-lowlander Filipiniana dresses with shawls), respectable ''barong Tagalogs'' (embroidered untucked shirts), and snazzy, light-hued sharkskin suits.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/125318952_2063818753749381_6824394414386800004_o.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Posters for the two main film adaptations: (L) ''Ang Larawan'', the 2017 Tagalog film version, and (R) the same-titled, 1965 English version.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]Posters for the two main film adaptations: (L) ''Ang Larawan'', the 2017 Tagalog film version, and (R) the same-titled, 1965 English version.[[/note]]]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anglarawanposter640_1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Promotional still from ''Ang Larawan'', the 2017 Tagalog film version.[[note]]Starring (L-R): Paulo Avelino as Tony Javier, and Rachel Alejandro & Joanna Ampil respectively as Paula & Candida Marasigan.[[/note]]]]

* MajoredInWesternHypocrisy: It's no surprise that Don Lorenzo studied in Europe in his youth, in the 1890s, before the Philippine Revolution (crossing paths explicitly with RealLife master artist Juan Luna. It would've been common for the Hispanicised, elite, ''ilustrado'' (intellectual; literally, "enlightened") class to which he belongs.

* RomanticismVsEnlightenment: In its own way, the play fights on the side of Romanticism, with its extolment of the way things used to be, before the war's physical—but also cultural, social, and moral—devastation.

* CitadelCity: Intramuros. And yet the tragic ForegoneConclusion is that the walls will do absolutely jack shit to protect the city's colonial splendour from airborne American bombardment and Japanese house-to-house fighting towards the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. [[note]]The citadel walls weren't significantly repaired until TheSeventies at least, and even today a lot of the beautiful old churches and buildings that used to occupy Intramuros have been left as ruins, or have been replaced either by slum areas or by more modern buildings, many of which are nondescript, ill-proportioned, or poorly designed. There are exceptions though—the Ayuntamiento, or old Legislative Hall, was rebuilt with reasonable accuracy, at least on the outside, after enduring over sixty years as a car park. It now houses the Philippine Bureau of the Treasury.[[/note]]

* RoleReprisal: Rachel Alejandro first played Paula in the initial 1997 staging of ''Ang Larawan''. Twenty years later she returns to play the same role onscreen. The book compilation of the original English play, along with both ''Ang Larawan'' stage and screen versions, notes that Rachel was rather too young for the role of Paula in 1997, but by the time of the movie, she is now closer to Paula's age.

* NostalgiaFilter