Juan Luna

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Juan Luna y Novicio (Spanish: [ˈxwan ˈluna]

October 24, 1857 – December 7, 1899),
better known as Juan Luna was a Filipino
painter, sculptor and a political activist of
the Philippine Revolution during the late
19th century. He became one of the first
recognized Philippine artists.
 Juan Luna

Juan Luna c. 1899

Born Juan Novicio Luna

October 24, 1857
Badoc, Ilocos Norte,
Captaincy General of
the Philippines

Died December 7, 1899

(aged 42)
British Hong Kong

Known for Painting, drawing,

sculpting

Notable work Spoliarium, 1884,

The Death of Cleopatra,
1881
El Pacto de Sangre,
1884
La Batalla de Lepanto,
1887
The Parisian Life, 1892
The River, 1885

in museums:

National Museum of
Fine Arts
Ayala Museum
Metropolitan
Museum of Manila
Lopez Museum
Government Service
Insurance System
 Malacañan Palace

Movement Romanticism, Realism

His winning the gold medal in the 1884

Madrid Exposition of Fine Arts, along with
the silver win of fellow Filipino painter Félix
Resurrección Hidalgo, prompted a
celebration which was a major highlight in
the memoirs of members of the
Propaganda Movement, with the fellow
Ilustrados toasting to the two painters'
good health and to the brotherhood
between Spain and the Philippines.

Regarded for work done in the manner of

the Spanish, Italian and French academies
of his time, Luna painted literary and
historical scenes, some with an
underscore of political commentary. His
allegorical works were inspired with
classical balance, and often showed
figures in theatrical poses.

Biography
Early life

Born in the town of Badoc, Ilocos Norte in

the northern Philippines, Juan N. Luna was
the third among the seven children of
Joaquín Posadas Luna and Laureana
Ancheta Novicio-Luna. In 1861, the Luna
family moved to Manila and he went to
Ateneo Municipal de Manila where he
obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree. He
excelled in painting and drawing, and was
influenced by his brother, Manuel N. Luna,
who, according to Filipino patriot José
Rizal, was a better painter than Juan
himself.

Luna enrolled at Escuela Nautica de

Manila (now Philippine Merchant Marine
Academy) and became a sailor. He took
drawing lessons under the illustrious
painting teacher Lorenzo Guerrero of
Ermita, Manila. He also enrolled in the
Academy of Fine Arts (Academia de
Dibujo y Pintura) in Manila where he was
influenced and taught how to draw by the
Spanish artist Agustin Saez. However,
Luna's vigorous brush strokes displeased
his teacher and Luna was discharged from
the academy. However, Guerrero was
impressed by his skill and urged Luna to
travel to Cubao to further pursue his work.

Travel abroad

In 1877 Manuel and Juan Luna traveled to

Europe, where Manuel studied music and
Juan painting. Juan entered the Escuela
de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, where he
befriended the painter Don Alejo Vera.
Luna was discontented with the style of
teaching in school and decided that it
would be much better to work with Vera.

Vera brought him to Rome for some of his

commissions, and Luna was exposed to
the art of the Renaissance painters. It was
in 1878 when his artistic talents was
established with the opening of the first
art exposition in Madrid which was called
the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes
(National Demonstration of Fine Arts).
From then on, Luna became engrossed in
painting and produced a collection of
paintings that he exhibited in the 1881
Exposition.
In 1881, his La Muerte de Cleopatra (The
Death of Cleopatra)[1][2] won him a silver
medal and came in second place. Luna's
growing reputation as an artist led to a
pensionado (pension) scholarship at 600
pesos annually through the Ayuntamiento
of Manila. The condition was that he was
obliged to develop a painting which
captured the essence of Philippine history
which would then become the
Ayuntamiento's property.

Artistic Career
Juan Luna in his Paris studio.

In 1883 Luna started the painting

demanded of him by the Ayuntamiento. In
May 1884, he shipped the large canvas of
the Spoliarium to Madrid for the year's
Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes. He
was the first recipient of the three gold
medals awarded in the exhibition and Luna
gained recognition among the
connoisseurs and art critics present. On
June 25, 1884, Filipino and Spanish nobles
organized an event celebrating Luna's win
in the exhibition. That evening, Rizal
prepared a speech for his friend,
addressing the two significant things of
his art work, which included the
glorification of genius and the grandeur of
his artistic skills.

Luna developed a friendly relationship with

the King of Spain and was later
commissioned by the Spanish Senate to
paint a large canvas which was called the
La Batalla de Lepanto (The Battle of
Lepanto).[3] He moved to Paris in 1885
where he opened his own studio and
befriended Hidalgo. A year after, he
finished the piece El Pacto de Sangre (The
Blood Compact) in accordance with the
agreement he had with the Ayuntamiento
of Manila. Depicted in this piece was the
blood compact ceremony between the
Datu Sikatuna, one of the lords in Bohol
island, and the Spanish conquistador
Miguel López de Legazpi.[4] It is now
displayed in the Malacañan Palace. He
also sent two other paintings in addition to
the one required; the second canvas sent
to Manila was a portrait of López de
Legazpi reconstructed by Luna from his
recollection of a similar portrait he saw in
the hall of the Cabildo, and the third was of
Governor-general Ramón Blanco y Erenas.
In 1887, Luna once again traveled back to
Spain to enter in that year's Exposition two
of his pieces, the La Batalla de Lepanto and
Rendición de Granada (Surrender of
Granada), which both won in the exhibition.
He celebrated his triumph with his friends
in Madrid with Graciano López-Jaena
delivered Luna a congratulatory speech.
Luna's paintings are generally described as
being vigorous and dramatic. With its
elements of Romanticism, his style shows
the influence of Delacroix, Rembrandt, and
Daumier.

Juan Luna masterpiece “¿A Do...Va la

Nave?” sold for P46.8M at Makati
auction.[5]

Marriage

On December 4, 1886, Luna married Maria

de la Paz Pardo de Tavera, a sister of his
friend Felix and Trinidad Pardo de Tavera.
The couple traveled to Venice and Rome
and settled in Paris. They had one son,
whom they named Andrés, and a daughter,
Maria de la Paz, nicknamed Bibi, who died
in infancy. Luna was fond of his wife.
However, the jealous Luna frequently
accused Paz of having an affair with a
certain Monsieur Dussaq. Finally in a fit of
jealousy, he killed his wife and mother-in-
law and wounded his brother-in-law, Felix,
on September 22, 1892. He was arrested
and murder charges were filed against
him.

Luna was acquitted of charges on

February 8, 1893, on the grounds of a
crime of passion. Temporary insanity; the
"unwritten law" at the time forgave men for
killing unfaithful wives.[6] He was ordered
to pay the Pardo de Taveras a sum of one
thousand six hundred fifty one francs and
eighty three cents, and an additional
twenty five francs for postage, in addition
to the 1 Franc of claims for damages
("dommages-intérêts"). Five days later,
Luna went to Madrid with his brother,
Antonio Luna, and his son, Andrés.

Murcia

A few years later, in October 1889, the

artist travelled to southeast Spain, Murcia,
as contained in the news release at the
time, was provisionally installed in
Moratalla where he made a portrait of the
daughter of Juan Tamayo, an eminent man
in this town. Passing through Murcia gave
two portraits of the Queen Regent had
made to the Provincial and City Council,
respectively, and one of these was
acquired by the provincial body for five
hundred seventy-five pesetas installed on
top of the Hall of Sessions of the
Provincial Palace and then going to the
presidential office in April 1932, one year
after the proclamation of the Second
Spanish Republic, enters as a deposit
Museum of Murcia along with several
official portraits of royal iconography,
being included in the different inventories
and catalogs without sufficient data or
references, just a terse "DJ.LUNA" as
artistic attribution.

Final years
In 1894 Luna moved back to the
Philippines and traveled to Japan in 1896,
returning during the Philippine Revolution
of the Cry of Balintawak. On September
16, 1896, he and his brother Antonio Luna
were arrested by Spanish authorities for
being involved with the Katipunan rebel
army.[7] Despite his imprisonment, Luna
was still able to produce a work of art
which he gave to a visiting priest. He was
pardoned by the Spanish courts on May
27, 1897 and was released from prison
and he traveled back to Spain in July.[8]:394
He returned to Manila in November
1898.[8]:394 In 1898, he was appointed by
the executive board of the Philippine
revolutionary government as a member of
the Paris delegation which was working
for the diplomatic recognition of the
República Filipina (Philippine Republic). In
1899, upon the signing of the Treaty of
Paris (1898),[9] Luna was named a
member of the delegation to Washington,
D.C. to press for the recognition of the
Philippine government.

He traveled back to the Philippines in

December 1899 upon hearing of the
murder of his brother Antonio by the Kawit
Battalion in Cabanatuan. He traveled to
Hong Kong and died there on December 7,
1899 from a heart attack. His remains
were buried in Hong Kong and in 1920
were exhumed and kept in Andrés Luna's
house, to be later transferred to a niche at
the Crypt of the San Agustin Church in the
Philippines. Five years later, Juan would be
reinstated as a world-renowned artist and
Peuple et Rois, his last major work, was
acclaimed the best entry to the Saint Louis
World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri.[10] Some
of his paintings were destroyed by fire in
World War II.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to

Juan Luna.

Media portrayal
 Portrayed by Bryan Benedict in the TV
series, Ilustrado (2014).
Portrayed by Allan Paule in the film,
Heneral Luna (2015).

See also
Spoliarium
El Pacto De Sangre
España y Filipinas
Antonio Luna
José Rizal
José Honorato Lozano
Damián Domingo
Fernando Amorsolo
 Fabián de la Rosa
Justiniano Asuncion

References
1. "The Death of Cleopatra" by Juan Luna
Archived June 23, 2010, at the Wayback
Machine, kulay-diwa.com
2. Ocampo, Ambeth R. (Chairman, National
Historical Institute of the Philippines) "The
Death of Cleopatra" by Juan Luna , from the
article "Las Damas Romanas (Roman
Maidens) by Juan Luna (The Philippines
1857-1899)", Christie's, Department
Information, Southeast Asian Modern and
Contemporary Art, christies.com
3. Anderson, Benedict Richard O'Gorman.
"The Battle of Lepanto" by Juan Luna ,
including Footnote No. 15, Under Three
Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-colonial
Imagination, page 18.
4. Ocampo, Ambeth. "The Blood Compact"
by Juan Luna , from Juan Luna's Works,
Looking Back, Inquirer Opinion/Columns,
Inquirer, opinion.inquirer.net, October 24,
2007
5. "Juan Luna masterpiece sold for P46.8M
at Makati auction" . Retrieved 2015-09-25.
6. "The Case of Juan Luna Is an Argument
for Legalizing Divorce in RP" . Archived
from the original on July 14, 2011.
Retrieved February 15, 2011.
7. Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, A plot to kill a
general (October 27, 2008), The Philippine
Star.
8. Foreman, J., 1906, The Philippine Islands,
A Political, Geographical, Ethnographical,
Social and Commercial History of the
Philippine Archipelago, New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons
9. "Treaty of Peace Between the United
States and Spain; December 10, 1898" .
Yale. 2009. Retrieved 2013-04-07.
10. “Peuple et Rois” by Juan Luna
Archived January 29, 2010, at the Wayback
Machine, lopezmuseum.org.ph

External links
INQUIRER.net: Juan Luna's work
López Memorial Museum: Juan Luna

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"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Juan_Luna&oldid=873978240"

Last edited 2 months ago by Daniel.…

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