VISUAL ARTS
*Paintings*
Juan Luna
LA BULAQUENA
La Bulaqueña, literally "the woman from Bulacan" or "the Bulacan woman", also sometimes referred to as Una Bulaqueña ("a woman from Bulacan"), is the Spanish title of an 1895 painting by Filipino painter and hero Juan Novicio Luna. Bulacan is a province in the Philippines in Luzon island and its residents are called Bulaqueños, also spelled as Bulakenyos (Bulakenyo for men and Bulakenya for women) in the Filipino language. It is a "serene portrait", of a Filipino woman wearing a Maria Clara gown[1], a traditional Filipino dress that is composed of four pieces, namely the camisa, the saya (long skirt), the panuelo (neck cover), and the tapis (knee-length overskirt). The name of the dress is an eponym to Maria Clara, the mestiza heroine of Filipino hero José Rizal's novel Noli Me Tangere.[2] The woman's clothing in the painting is the reason why the masterpiece is alternately referred to as Maria Clara. It is one of the few canvases done by Luna illustrating Filipino culture. The painting is currently displayed at the so-called Music Room of the Malacañang Palace, the seat of the government of the Philippines.[1]
Filipino art experts, historians, and researchers have four recommendations on the identity of the woman depicted in Luna's La Bulaquena despite the absence of photographs. According to E.A. Cruz, a columnist for the Philippine Daily Globe newspaper, the woman in the portrait could be one of the women courted by Luna after losing his wife Maria de la Paz Pardo de Tavera. Luna killed his wife and mother-in-law because of jealousy.
ESPANA Y FILIPINAS
España y Filipinas, meaning “Spain and the Philippines” in translation, is an 1886 oil on wood[1][2] by Filipino painter, ilustrado, propagandist, and paladin, Juan Luna. It is an allegorical depiction[3] of two women together, one a representation of Spain and the other of the Philippines.[4] The painting, also known as España Guiando a Filipinas ("Spain Leading the Philippines"),[5] is regarded as one of the “enduring pieces of legacy” that the Filipinos inherited from Luna.[6] The painting is a centerpiece art at the Luna Hall[1] of the Lopez Memorial Museum.[3][6]
Although an oil on canvas masterpiece[1][2] that projected a close bond between Spain and the Philippines through feminine figures, it is a propaganda painting that revealed the true hope and desire of Filipino propagandists during the 19th-century: assimilation with Spain, reform, equality, modernization, and economic improvement. Contrary to Jose Rizal’s estimation that Luna was a “Hispanophile”, or a person who could never go against Spain, the España y Filipinas portrait is a “less combative posture” of Luna for showing to Spain and the viewers of the painting the needs of the Philippines at the time.[4]
TAMPUHAN
Luna's Tampuhan is a depiction of two persons staying inside the sala or living room of a house. The two people are Filipino lovers sulking – experiencing "tampo" – because of an argument. The man is looking out at the street from a window. The woman on the other hand is focusing her eyes on the floor of the room. According to Rosalinda Orosa, the man is Ariston Bautista Lin, a friend of Luna who studied medicine in Europe. Orosa further described that the woman is Emiliana Trinidad. Trinidad is the ancestor of the owner of the painting, and is claimed by Orosa to be the same woman who posed for Luna's La Bulaqueña, another Luna artwork that illustrates Filipino culture.[2]
In Filipino courtship, culture, values and psychology, tampuhan (from the Filipino-language root word tampo) or sulking is in essence a disagreement between lovers wherein "total silent treatment" between them is evident, meaning the two persons are not "speaking to each other". Other expressions of “sulking” in the "love life" of Filipinos include other non-verbal actions such as not conversing with other people, keeping to one's self, being oddly quiet, non-participation with friends in group activities, non-participation in family outings or other activities, and even merely locking one's self in his or her personal bedroom. To end the sulking, one of the lovers has to coax the other, or both persuade each other to commit to an agreement or compromise.[3]
SPOLARIUM
The spolarium measures four meters in height and seven meters in width. The canvas depicts a chamber beneath a Roman arena, where bodies of dead gladiators are being dragged into a shadowy area, presumably to be piled for disposal.
Spoliarium was painted on a very large canvas and is more or less life size. It depicts defeated gladiators in the arena being dragged into a pile of other corpses. On the left side, there are spectators viewing the spectacle with a variety of expressions, while on the far right side of the painting is a grieving woman in torn and shabby clothing. Horizontal lines are seen in the walls and the people watching the scene. But diagonal lines that denote movement are very obvious and can be seen in the gladiators’ slain bodies, in the men dragging them and in the floor tiles. There is dominant use of contour lines as shown in the muscles of the arms, legs and backs of the gladiators. In the use of color, there is a governing use of red, mostly seen in the center, that is one of the first things to attract the attention of the viewer. The use of blue on the weeping lady's dress creates contrast against the gladiators’ red dresses. The intensity of the color red is very overwhelming. Almost all of the colors used are warm colors, which is thought to be intentional on the part of the artist. Luna has been known to use colors not simply for reasons of aesthetics but also for their symbolic value.
The Spoliarium shows different interpretations to many people where one of the most famous interpretation is the mistreatment of the Spaniards towards the Filipinos.
