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Vicente Manansala's painting "Madonna of the Slum" depicts a mother hugging her child in an impoverished area. Manansala uses dark colors that give the painting a gloomy feeling, representing the sadness and vulnerability of the subjects. The painting shows a mother and child from the countryside who became residents of an urban slum. Juan Luna's 1884 painting "Spoliarium" depicts slaves being dragged from an arena towards darkness. The large-scale painting uses rich colors and conveys a tragic event. Experts believe the painting represents the treatment of Filipinos during Spanish colonization, with the slaves as Filipinos and the dragging men as Spaniards. Luna intended

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120 views1 page

Contemp

Vicente Manansala's painting "Madonna of the Slum" depicts a mother hugging her child in an impoverished area. Manansala uses dark colors that give the painting a gloomy feeling, representing the sadness and vulnerability of the subjects. The painting shows a mother and child from the countryside who became residents of an urban slum. Juan Luna's 1884 painting "Spoliarium" depicts slaves being dragged from an arena towards darkness. The large-scale painting uses rich colors and conveys a tragic event. Experts believe the painting represents the treatment of Filipinos during Spanish colonization, with the slaves as Filipinos and the dragging men as Spaniards. Luna intended

Uploaded by

marie joyce almayan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Madonna of the Slum by Vicente Manansala, this painting can now be seen in one of our

national museums. Lets have an analysis. For the visual elements. The lines: are thin,
straight, horizontal, vertical and even diagonal. There are also shapes like triangle,
rectangle, and trapezoid. Colors rages from black, brown, yellow, white, green and blue.
These visual elements represent the people who are the Mother, child, and "other
people" in the background. Theres also things like houses, clothes, electric post, tenter
and the sky. The events shows the mother hugging the child and people whose activity
cannot be distinguished either they are dancing or resting. This painting shows sadness
and a scary feeling. Aside from the expression of the mother and child's faces. Manansala
uses dark and warm colors making the painting so gloomy. The child being naked, and the
mother's top slightly downward shows vulnerability which makes it scary. The houses
signify their poor economic status as it looks like they are in a slum area. For me the tight
hug shows that they are depending on each other and that’s the power of family. This
artwork was created on 1950. Manansala's canvases were described as masterpieces that
brought the cultures of the barrio and the city together. His Madonna of the Slums is a
portrayal of a mother and child from the countryside who became urban shanty residents
once in the city.
Now let’s have another famous artwork Spoliarium of none other than Juan Luna. Luna
painted the Spoliarium in 1884 as an entry to the prestigious Exposition de Bellas Artes in
Madrid, where it won the first gold medal. The first thing that we'll notice about the
painting is it size itself, which is 4.22 meters in height and 7.675 meters in width. The type
of media that Luna uses to create Spoliarium is oil paint on canvas. And take note, it is the
largest painting here in the Philippines. The large-scale painting depicts slaves that are
dragged by men from the wide and powerful arena towards an unknown darkness. The
crowd is on the left side. A woman who is crouched and looks like in sorrow is on the right
side of the painting. The painting is rich in colors that give a warm mood to the eyes and
red is the central color that attracts more attention. Definitely, the painting shows a tragic
event and a deeper meaning. According to the experts, the slaves who are dragged in the
painting are Filipinos, and the men dragging them are the Spaniards. The woman
crouched in the right side is Mother Country or Inang Bayan who weeps for her
Philippines. And the crowds are the social cancer at that time. Saying that Luna painted
the Spoliarium to show us what its look like during the time of Spanish Colonization.
Luna's Spoliarium currently hangs in the main gallery at the National Museums of Fine
Arts in Manila. The use of light, shape, gesture and line all work together harmoniously to
portray the mood of the painting and the message that will remain in the Philippines’
Culture and History.

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