Scribd
Upload
113 views1 page

SPOLIARIUM

Spoliarium depicts a grim scene in a Roman circus where dead gladiators are being dragged away after death to be stripped of their weapons and clothing. Painted in a realistic style, it shows a jubilant audience to the left and a despairing woman to the right. Juan Luna used this painting to appeal to Filipino patriotic sentiments and protest the mistreatment of Filipinos under Spanish colonial rule. It emphasizes the human rights atrocities of Spanish colonizers and declares Luna's patriotism. Spoliarium is considered the most important work in the Philippine national museum as it was the first Philippine painting to win an international competition in Europe.

Uploaded by

Elaine Joyce Garcia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
113 views1 page

SPOLIARIUM

Spoliarium depicts a grim scene in a Roman circus where dead gladiators are being dragged away after death to be stripped of their weapons and clothing. Painted in a realistic style, it shows a jubilant audience to the left and a despairing woman to the right. Juan Luna used this painting to appeal to Filipino patriotic sentiments and protest the mistreatment of Filipinos under Spanish colonial rule. It emphasizes the human rights atrocities of Spanish colonizers and declares Luna's patriotism. Spoliarium is considered the most important work in the Philippine national museum as it was the first Philippine painting to win an international competition in Europe.

Uploaded by

Elaine Joyce Garcia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

SPOLIARIUM

Spoliarium, by Juan Luna, depicts a scene in a Roman circus where


dead gladiators are stripped of their weapons and clothing. His artwork depicts
gladiators being dragged ruthlessly by men into an unknown darkness, where
they would be joined by other tragically dead gladiators. In this, he used a style
which is a mix of realistic art and representational art. The form he used is a
two dimensional painting type of artwork. To the left, a jubilant audience cries
for blood, while to the right, a woman crouches and appears to be in despair.
Women are the subjects of these artworks maybe because of their beauty and
aesthetic brilliance.

As I was watching the film “Heneral Luna” I had observed a similar scene
of the Spoliarium in it. It is a picture of tragic remembrance. It shows that
Juan Luna, the brother of the Heneral used his artwork to appeal to the
Filipinos' patriotic demands, and project a nationalistic symbolism that the
Filipinos those time stand up against their Spanish invaders' political
persecution and on how they were treated before.

Spoliarium emphasizes Spanish colonizers' human rights atrocities, and


Juan Luna has declared his patriotism. It represents our social, moral, and
political lives: unredeemed humanity, reason and aspiration in open conflict
with prejudice, extremism, and injustice. It depicts death as it was over a
century ago; the kind of death Luna and his generation had to deal with. With
Spoliarium, Juan Luna hopes to awaken Filipinos from a state of ignorance,
blindness, mental darkness, and oppression.
Spoliarium encourages us Filipinos to think about what happened in the
past. It provides us with a historical perspective that allows us to question the
present, which is both the source and the cause of our country's wounds due
to deliberate forgetting of the past. Recognizing our own sorrow and struggle
through that of others is a form of insight that lays beneath a ray of hope. "The
culture of a country is reflected in works of art," as they say. The paintings in
the Philippines are more than just pretty; they portray the country's culture
and history, as well as how it has influenced the present.
Spoliarium is the most valued work of art in the national museum since, in
addition to being the Philippines' largest painting, it was also the first time the
Philippines has won an art competition hosted outside the country, notably in
Europe. Filipinos were discriminated against at the time Juan Luna painted it
because Spaniards looked down on them, it is certainly a piece of history.

You might also like