Juan Luna - painter and patriot

Abstract

HAVE you ever seen the paintings called the Blood Compact and Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, which now hang in historic Malacañang Palace? These are two of Juan Luna’s best known works. The former canvas, painted in Paris, represents the pact of peace, friendship, and understanding made in 1565 between the Spanish explorer Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and Capitan Martin de Goiti with a native chieftain, Sikatuna of Bohol. These men sealed their agreement by drinking wine mixed with a few drops of their own blood.

But it is the Spoliarium, Luna’s masterpiece, that principally brought world fame to this Filipino painter. The original is in Barcelona, but a copy which used to hang in the Marble Hall of the defunct Ayuntamiento, is now in the National Art Museum on Herran Street. it depicts in its stark reality, a gory scene in the Roman era - the end of gladiatorial combat, an ancient Roman sport designed to amuse the emperors and the nobles. The scene is the Spoliarium, a room behind the Coliseum, a vast amphitheater capable of accommodating one hundred thousand spectators where the combats were held. One of the fights has just ended, and the bloody bodies of the dead are being dragged into the Spoliarium by attendants. According to Graciano Lopez-Jaena, "to see the Spoliarium is to be transported, as if by magic, to the pagan age to witness a horrible spectacle lull of terror and conflicting emotions."