Juan Luna

JUAN NOVICIO LUNA (1857-1899)

LUNA, JUAN Novicio b Badoc, Ilocos Norte 24 Oct 1857 d. Hong Kong 7 Dec 1899. His parents are

Joaquin Luna de San Pedro y Posada and Laurena Novicio y Ancheta. He has four equally famous brothers:

Manuel, b, 1855, a violin virtuoso; Jose, b. 1861, a physician; Joaquin Damoso, b. 1864, governor,

congressman, and senator and Antonio, b. I866, writer and general of the Philippine Revolution Army. On 7

Dec 1886, Juan married Paz (Chiching) Pardo de Tavera y Gorricho with whom he had two children, Andres

Luna San Pedro, and Maria de la Paz. Who died young.

The Lunas transferred to Manila in 1861 enabling Juan to finish his high school at the Ateneo de Manila. In

1869, he enrolled at the Escuela Nautica, where after five years of theoretical courses and practical sailing to

Asian ports like Hongkong, Amoy, Singapore, Colombo, and Batavia, he obtained the certificate of piloto de

altos mares tercer clase (pilot of the high seass third class). While in Port for six months, he took up landscape

painting at the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura. Eventually, he received private lessons from Lorenzo Guerrero,

who, perceiving his potentials urged his parents to send him to Spain for further studies. In 1877, Juan

executed Barrio al lado del rio (village by the river) and Vista de un barrio con kapok (Barrio Scene with

Kapok Trees) Towards the end of that year he sailed to Spain.

Luna enrolled at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. There he obtained accesit

(outstanding) in color composition and antique studies but did not stay long. Instead he apprenticed himself

with Alejo Vera, a professor of the said school, whom he accompanied to Italy in 1879 when the later went to

fulfill commissions there. Upon arriving there, Luna visited the ruins of Pompeii and Naples and made some

40 studies of excavated classical sites and objects now mostly in the National Museum of the Philippines. At

this time he finished his miniature Autoretrato a edad 22 (Self portrait at 22), on charcoall, and Dafnis y Chloe

(Daphnis and Chloe). The latter would soon win him a silver palette from the Centro Artistico Literario de

Manila. When Vera went back to Spain, Luna remained behind, staying with the Berdlliure brothers, with

whom he was to develop a loyal friendship. He stayed in Rome until spring, 1884, finishing there such pieces

as La bella feliz y la esclava ciega (The Happy Beauty and the Blind Slave), La Muerte de Cleopatra (The

Death of Cleopatra), and the portrait of Pedro Paterno. Cleopatra won for him a silver medal at the Madrid Art

Exposition of 1881. For this achievement the Ayuntamiento de Manila granted him a four year scholarship

upon the instigation by Francisco de Paula Rodoreda. In 1883 he started painting the Spoliarium, which won

him the first gold medal at the Madrid Art Exposition the following year. A colossal multifigure scene

depicting dead gladiators being mourned by their relatives at the basement of the Roman Colosseum, the

Spoliarium was identified by Jose Rizal as an allusion to the exploitation or the Philippines by Spain.

Luna transferred to Paris in October 1884 but he shuttled back and forth to Madrid as his works, particularly

portraits, were now in demand. His presence was also needed by fellow Filipinas who were pushing for

reforms in the Philippine colony from the Madrid government. In 1885, he executed El pacto de sangre (Blood

Compact) and miguel Lopez de Legaspi, pieces sent to Manila in return for his aforementioned scholarship. He

also started La batalla de Lepanto (The battle of Lepanto) commissioned by the Spanish Senate upon the

influence of King Alfonso XII to be hung beside La rendicion de granada (The Surrender of Granada) by 1878

grand prize winner Francisco Pradilla. By this gesture, the king hoped to compensate Luna who was not given

the grand prize for Spoliarium. Although public sentiment felt he deserved the award, it was withheld from

him by a biased jury. In 1886 Luna's Damas Romanas (Roman Ladies) won a diploma of honor at the Munich

Salon and in 1887 his Mestiza en su tocador (Mestiza Lady at her Dresser) won a similar award at the

Exposicion General de las Filipinas. In November of the same year, the Queen Regent Maria Cristina unveiled

both Luna's and Pradilla's paintings at the Madrid Senate, where both are still hanging. From 1884 to 1890

Luna also executed city scenes like En el palco (At The Theater Box),1894, [Street Flower Vendors], 1885,

that captured part of the funeral cortege of Victor Hugo, many views of villages and beaches in Normandy and

several portraits of himself, his wife, and children.

Nurtured in the academic classical canons then prevalent all over the western world, Luna followed the

conventional steps in attaining professional success, such as obtaining prizes with colossal Graeco-Roman

canvases in the grand Classico-Romantic manner at the prestigious atr salons of Europe. By 26 May 1889,

however, in his letter to Javier Gomez de la Serna, he vowed his disillusionment with the historical canvas

thus: "all historical painting is false starting with the very concept, and those who think that correct drawing,

good composition, brilliant coloring and a lot of adornment are enough to make it valid are mistaken." This

statement, however, does not signify Lunas break with the academic tradition nor his sympathy with

impressionism, as many critics earlier presummed, but rather his leaving towards the more progressive faction

of the salon ­ "the distant one," that he described on 5 May 189 to Rizal. Luna first signalled this involvement

with Le Chifonier (The Rag picker), showing an old man in tattered clothes carrying a basket of rags, which

he showed at the Champs-de-Mars in 1889. By 1891, he was reading Le Socialism Contemporain

(Contemporary Socialism) by E. de Lavelaye and through this concern, he attained the highest honors he was

ever to achieve, namely his acceptance as member of the Societe Nationale de Beaux Arts. This entitled him to

exhibit as many as 10 pictures at the Champs-de-Mars without going through the jury. He gained this

acceptance through the merits of Les lgnores (known as Heroes Anonimos or Los Desherados in Spanish

and Poor Allan's Burial in English) which he showed at the Champs-de-Mars in that year.

In I892, Luna finished Peuple et Rois (People and Kings), which he intended to send to the Chicago Universal

Exposition of that year. However, a tragedy aborted his plans. On 22 Sept 1892, he shot his wife and

motherlaw. Acquitted by the French court on 3 Feb l893, Luna left Paris for Madrid with his son Luling. On

12 July, he moved to Portuglete, Bilbao where he executed two worker themes, La colada (The Strainer) and

Interior de los talleres del acero Robert (Interior of the Robert Steel Foundy). In May 1894, after an odyssey

of 17 years, Juan returned to Manila with his son and his brother Antonio. In the summer of 1896, he went to

Japan with his student Gaston O'Farrell. Juan did as many as 20 paintings in Japan. In August 1896, he was

arrested together with his brothers by the Spanish constabulary for complicity in the Katipunan Rebellion.

Cleared eventually, he left for Spain to work for the pardon of his brother, Antonio. During his homecoming

period he painted many portraits such as Gobernador General Ramon Blanco, La Bulaquena, those of his

parents, brothers, sisters in-law and nieces. He painted landscapes like Taal Volcano, Marikina, etc., and

genre scenes like Tampuhan (Sulking). Back in Spain, he received news of the overthrow of the Spanish role

in the Philippines. Upon the establishment of the Philippine Republic, he was appointed a diplomatic agent of

the Hong Kong junta and later a member of the diplomatic missions to Paris and the United States to work for

the recognition of the new government in those countries. Luna died in Hong Kong on his way back to the

Philippines.

Kulay-Diwa  is a venue for Philippines and Southeast Asian Contemporary Art. Inaugurated on February 7, 1987, Kulay-Diwa, is strategically located within a cluster of communities South of Manila.  It has five independent exhibition areas able to accommodate large-scale works and a garden ideal for programs, performances and sculpture installations.  The goal of the gallery is to discover and promote the works of young, talented but deserving Filipino Artists and to foster cultural interaction and exchanges with the local regions and other countries.

Kulay (Colour)

Diwa  (Spirit, Thought)

Juan Luna, "Untitled" , Oil on Canvas, 61 x 91 cms., 1889 Alemania

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