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The Asian Modern © John Clark 2013

Juan Luna (1857-1899)

Notes
Precursor discourses domestic
Art worlds patronage
1790s ca. Tipos del páis imported from both Iberio-American sources as well as China coast
1846 School of Fine Arts of Manila founded.

Contemporary discourses with period of artist’s activity

Other prizewinners:
1881 Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz, Donña Juana la Loca, Emilio Sala, Guillén de Vinatea, Alejandro
Ferrant, Entiero de San Sebastián
1884 Jose Moreno Carbonero [aged 24, Luan;s colleague in Rome] The Conversion of the Duke of
Gandía, Salvador Sánchez Barbudo, Hamlet, Rafel Senet, Return from a fishing trip in Naples.
nd
2 place gold medalist , Atonio Muñoz Degraín,Lovers of Teruel [future teacher of Picasso]
Silver, Juan Antonio Belliure, Moanquillo [sculpture of acolyte accidentally burning his fingers on
a censer, anti-clerical in message, roommate of Luna]

Letter from Hidalgo to José Rizal, October 1879

Describing classes at Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando

You have us here as students of the Academy attending all classes of its school of Fine
Arts.
We enter with diffidence and why deny it, with little fear, but upon seeing here the work of
students of the Academy, we lost our fear. On the other hand we were greatly
disenchanted because we would like to have as classmates people who have more mettle
than the ones now attending the school for they would have served as a stimulus to us.

Our professor in the class of ancient painting and drapery from 8 to 10 in the morning is
Sr. Espalter; in that of colouring and composition from 10 to 12 in the morning Sr.
Federico Madrazo; in that of pictorial anatomy from 1 to 2 in the afternoon Sr. Ignacio
Llanos; and in that of natural painting or still life painting from 6.30 to 8.30 in the evening
Sr. Catols Ribera. They are all very good professors, but you can be very sure that what
you can study there (Manila) under Sr. Augustin Saez is exactly the same as what is taught
here, neither more nor less, with the difference that there you paint and draw much more
comfortably than we do here, because there you have the entire hall at your disposal, while
here we can hardly pick up a bad corner, often enveloped in darkness, and we have to
stretch our necks to see the model who, parenthetically speaking, is almost always quite
poor, though very suitable for the study of deviations of the human form…. In the
meantime do not lose your courage and follow the advice of our dear professor Sr.
Augustin Saez and in that way you will advance greatly in such a difficult study as that of
painting.

I do not want to tell you about the Museo del Prado because I have no more time. I will
only tell you that it contains the most valuable collection of paintings, more than 3,000 that
is found in Europe. One leaves that building with a headache and despair in the soul,
because one is convinced of the little he knows, that one is not even an atom compared
with the colossi of art. (From Ocampo-2008 146-7)

On Luna’s later socialist sympathies:

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Tomorrow is the opening of the Salon du Champ du Mars. It is the first time that I have
two pictures on the cimaise [a small shelf used to prop up pictures] or on the socle. I can
take some satisfaction from this (for the moment), since you know how I peddle my
pictures, like potatoes in the market. To my painting of the burial I have given the title Les
Ignorés, and as you will see [have seen?] I am busying myself now with the lowly and
disinherited. What book would you recommend me to read to inspire me in this plan? By
someone who has written against such naked materialism and such infamous exploitation
of the poor, and the war of the rich against the wretched! I am seeking a subject worthy of
being developed into an eight-meter canvas. I am now reading Le socialisme contemporarire by
E. de Lavelaye, in which he has summarized the theories of Karl Marx, Lasalle, etc.,
Catholic socialism, conservative, evangelical, etc. The book interests me very much, but
what I would like is a book that would highlight the miseries of contemporary society, a
kind of Divine Comedy, a Dante who would walk through the workshops where one can
hardly breather, and where men, little kids, and women live in the most wretched
conditions one could imagine. My dear fellow, I have myself gone to see an iron foundry.
I spent five hours there, and believe me, no matter how hardhearted a person may be, the
spectacle I witnessed there made the deepest impression upon me. Despite all the evil that
friars commit over there, our compatriots are fortunate compared to this misery and death.
There was a workshop there for grinding up sand and coal, which, converted into the
finest dust by the action ofr the milling machine, swirled up in huge black clouds, and the
whole room seemed swathed in smoke. Everything there was filled with dust, and the ten
or twelve workers busy shoveling the coal and sand into the machine looked just like
corpses. Such was the miserable sight of the poor! I stood there for three or four minutes,
and it seemed as if I had swallowed sand and dust all my life; they penetrated me through
the nostrils, the mouth and the eyes... And to think that those unfortunates breathe coal
and dust twelve hours a day: I believe that they are inevitably condemned to death, and
that it is a crime to abandon such poor people in this way…
Letter from Juan Luna to José Rizal May 13, 1891.
(Anderson-2005 [translated from the Spanish found in Cartas entre Rizal y sus colegas de la
Propaganda, Manila, José Rizal Centennial Commission, 1961, 2 vols, p.660 p.206, See also
Ocampo, 2008, p.63]

Social milieu
‘Luna’s history is short: the story of a plant hidden in the ground which forces its way to the light
despite a thousand difficulties’.
Rizal, 1886

1834 Manila opened to trade with non-Spanish Europe and America. (see earlier Materials under
Simon Flores)

The following social classes were distinguished in early 1850s’ Philippines:

Indio: Philippine person of only native descent.
Sangley: Philippine person of only Chinese descent.
Mestizo: persons of Philippine descent mixed with Chinese [Mestizo de sangley] or Spanish [Mestizo
de Español] or other foreign ancestors eg Persons of Chinese, Spanish and other descent
[Tomatrás]
Criollos, Insulares: Phillipinese-born persons of only Spanish descent.
Peninsulares: persons not born in the Philippines of only Spanish descent, usually employed by the
state.

Changes in taste
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As the British consul remarked in 1858:

A very marked change has taken place in the dress and general exterior appearance of the
inhabitants of the large pueblos….In the interior of the houses the same change is observable in
the furniture and other arrangements, and the more evident wish to add the ornamental to the
more necessary articles of household uses’. Rafael, 2006, 8

Changes in thought
A serious obstacle to contemporary understanding of the Katipunan is the established view that
the rise of nationalism culminating in the revolution of 1896-1900 was purely a consequence of
heightened Westernization in the nineteenth century. The general argument is that the rise of
liberalism in Spain and the opening up of key Philippine cities to world trade encouraged the
formation of a well-to-do native and mestizo class that could afford to send tis son to Europe,
Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan to study. It was only during their stay abroad that these young,
educated Filipinos, called “illustrados’ realized what freedom meant, heightened consciousness
led to the dissolution of the “aura of authority and the halo of grace” that has bound Filipinos to
the colonial order. Realizing such injustices done to them, as forced labor, taxes, and inequality
before the law, the illustrados began to wage a propaganda campaign aimed to make Filipinos
and Spaniards equal before the existing colonial framework; they wanted reforms not
independence. In spite of their limited aims, however, the illustrados are credited with having
first conceived of a Filipino national community.
Ileto, Reynaldo Clemeña, Pasyon and Revolution, popular movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910,
Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1979, 79.

the illustrados who quickly took over the affairs of the new nation succeeded in institutionalizing
their definition, borrowed from the West, of “sovereign nation” as a bounded territory
encompassing all of its inhabitants who pledge loyalty to the government and the constitution.
Ileto 115

The experience of payson was defined by Diego Mojica [poet, former President of Katipunan in
San Francisco de Malabon] as:
A redemptive act, the completion of a divine plan, the painful death to a former state of being
Ileto 129

…the real origins of the nation lie outside of the national. These include but are not limited to
the violent and revolutionary breakup of dynastic, religious, and colonial orders; the expansion
ofcapitalist markets in general and print capitalism in particular;the rise of new technologies of
transportation and communication; the vernacularisation of languages of power; the spread of
the serial, mechanical temporality of the clock and calendar alongside modern modes of publicity
such as newspapers and novels producing new publics populated by emergent social types; and
the compulsion, especially among emergent elites, to comparative thinking.
Vincente L. Rafael, The Promise of the Foreign, nationalism and the technics of translation in the Spanish
Philippines¸ Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005 & Manila: Anvil, 2006, xvi.

On Translation:
Could we not think of the foreign languages, dress, ideas, and machineries that increasingly
penetrated and permeated colonial society throughout the nineteenth century as infrastructures
with which to extend one’s reach while simultaneously bringing distant others up close?
Rafael 2006, 5

As a technical ensemble, translation is not simply a mens of substituting the language and
meanings of one for another. It is also the letting loose and putting forth of the foreign, tasks
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made possible by repeatable acts of promising and believing in the possibility of

communicationg with others in the future. Rafael, 2006, 15
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Juan Luna (1857-1899) Chronology

1821 Mexican insurgency and declaration of independence forces Spain to administer the
Philippines directly. A direct mail route from Spain to Manila is established.
1847 San Pedro family changes name to Luna.
1857 October 23rd, JL born in Badoc, Ilocos Norte, Philippines, the third child of seven children,
to Joaquín Luna de San Pedro y Posadas, whose family were involved in large scale fishing
and were said to have some aboriginal Aeta descent, and his mother Laureana Novicio y
Ancheta, descended from landowners and soldiers.
1859 Jesuit order allowed to return to the Philippines from where it had been banned in 1768.
1862 father lost his job as a revenue inspector, moves to Manila to become a small merchant.
1863 Escuela Normal de Maestros (Teacher’s School) established by Jesuits for Filipino teachers
so they could teach Castillian in schools. Move was bitterly opposed by parish priests, who
were friars from other orders.
1869 opening of Suez Canal.
1872 Cavite Revolt sees execution by garotting of three Spanish secular priests, Burgos, Gomez,
and Zagorra.
1873 JL became student at Escuela Maritima de Manila [formerly Academia de Pilotage, gains
Diploma as Pilot, Third Class, visited Asian ports. At the same time he took occasional art
lessons from Lorenzo Guerrero.
1874 enters Ateneo Municipal de Manila, an eminent preparatory school. At the same time
enrolled at Academia de Dibujo y Pintura directed by Augustín Sáez, [formerly student of
elder Madrazos in Madrid] assisted by Lorenzo Guerrero [indio] and Lorenzo Rocha [criollo].
Luna fell out with Sáez and was dismissed. Guerrero recommended he study in Europe.
1875
1876
1877 José Rizal, aged sixteen, receives BA from Ateneo Municipal de Manila.
1877 JL went to Barcelona with elder brother Manuel, a violinist.
1878 JL entered Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, won academic prize at San
Fernando.
1878 saw Madrid art exposition, dissatisfied with instruction, studied privately with Alejo Vera
(1834-1923).
1879 Went to Rome with Vera who became Professor of Spanish Academy. Stayed at Via
Margutta with Mariano and Juan Antonio Belliure, pensionados of Spanish Academy, until
mid-1884. Painted Daphnis y Chhloe, and sent it from Rome to Manila where it won silver
palette of Liceo Artistico-Literario de Manila.
1879 October, Hidalgo writes to Rizal about quality of teaching at Escuela de Bellas Artes de San
Fernando.
1880
1881 exhibited at Exposicion de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Silver Medal 2nd class for La Muerte de
Cleopatra, bought by Spanish government [Museum of Modern Art, Prado, now in
Capitanía General de Sevilla, 2.5 x3.4 meters], and La Bella Feliz y la Esclava Ciega. Vera also
won a first class medal for El último día de Numancia.
1881 Preliminary studies for Spolarium begun. Source for subject lay in a popular book by
Charles Louis Dezobry, Rome in the time of Augustus, Adventures of a Gaul in Rome. In which
‘the protagonist hears the sound of lamentation coming from under the Roman
amphitheatre and on descending to the basement behold a tragic scene: the bloody bodies
of gladiators dead or dying, being mourned by their families’. [Pilar-1980, p.50]
1882 April 14th, Won four-year scholarship of the Ayuntamento de Manila [400 pesos in each of
first two years, 600 pesos in each of last two years]. Later Juan Luna gave Spanish
government The Blood Compact [Malacanang Palace, on the 1565 compact sealed by a blood
oath between Legazpi the Conquistador and Rajah Sikatuna of Bohol], Don Miguel Lopez de
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Legazpi [burned in WWII], Governor Ramon Blanco [Lopez Memorial Museum], La muerte de
Simón de Anda, uncompleted.
1882 As a banner bearer of an art association, attended funeral of Garibaldi [who had sailed to
Manila in 1852 as captain of a Peruvian vessel chartered to US’ traders]. According to
contemporary anecdote, ‘Luna held on to his banner, calm and unpeturbed, while the rest
of the procession scurried off in panic when rioters attempted to disrupt the funeral
march’. [Pilar-1980, p.50]
1883 Tom Roberts met Spanish painters Ramon Casas and Laurea Barau in Paris and worked
with them on s brief trip to Spain.
1883 JL’s brother Manuel, a violinist, dies.
1883 July, began painting Spolarium in Rome.
1884 March, finished Spolarium. mid-year, left Rome.
1884 June 14th, Spolarium wins one of three Gold Medals, i.e. First Equal Prize in Madrid
Exposicion General de Bellas Artes, but not the Prize of Honor which would have placed
him as an Indio above Spanish entrants. Hildago won 9th Silver Medal for Virgines Cristianas
Expuestas al Populacho (oil on canvas, 115 x 157 cms) both works picturing ‘suffering and
oppression during the declining days of a corrupt empire’ [Pilar-1980,p.58] JL began a
copy for client who was in Barcelona for an arms buying delegation of the Russian
Government.
Luna victory temporarily united those in favour of vigorous anti-Spanish pro-Indio
propaganda and those who were for a softer approach.
1884 June 25th, celebratory dinner hosted by Pedro Paterno, celebrated folklorist and poet, at
which were present Rizal and Graciano López Jaena, celebrated orator. Among many
speeches, former saw Spolarium as a reflection of ‘the spirit of our social, moral and
spiritual life, humanity subjected to trials unredeemed, and reason in open fight with
prejudice, fanaticism and injustice’. Latter said ‘The Philippines is more than a veritable
Spolarium with all its horrors! There lie the mangled fragments, humanity massacred, the
rights of man perverted! There is no semblance of justice for the common man, and liberty
is cinders, ashes, dust!’ [Pilar-1980, p.59, see Flores, 2011, p.2 for another translation]]
JL was received by King Alfonso XII, unprecedented for a colonial subject, who expressed
regret that he was not given the Prize of Honor.
JL awarded a contract for La Batalla de Lepanto by King Alfonso XII [preliminary sketch
brought by Rizal to Madrid in December 1884, work delivered in November 1887] to hang
in Palacio Senado, Madrid, a companion to Pradilla’s Rendición de Granada, which had won
Prize of Honor in 1878. [Later moved out of the Senate Hall into a corridor where it was
to be seen in 2008].
1885 En el Palco [In the theatre box], a small work of 17.25 x 26 incheswhose impasto and
sparkling surface recalls Fortuny
1884 October 22nd, news in Madrid that Luna had opened studio in Paris, 65 Boulevard Arago, a
few months after Hidalgo, whose studio was nearby.
1884 winter, met future wife, and her brother Felix, a student of sculpture, who had sent
congratulatory telegram to June 25th banquet.
1885 visited London, did Cockney Girl, with inscription ‘I am cold’.
1885 settled in Paris, studio at 65 Boulevard Arago near that of Hidalgo, followed by studio at
175 Boulevard Pereire.
1885 June 19th, Rizal qualifies as a Doctor in Madrid.
1886 Odalisca [Odalisque], Hymen, O Hymenée! (Roman Wedding) .
1886 January, Spolarium shown in Barcelona.
1886 February, Spolarium bought by Provincial Committee of Barcelona for 20,000 pesetas.
1886 completed El pacto de Sangre on commission of Ayuntamento de Manila.
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1886 April 27th, Paris Salon opens with Spolarium entered in competition where it won asilver
medal.
1886 sent Roman Ladies to exposition in München where awarded a Diploma of Honour.
1886 October, sends a pack of paintings to Manila for sale, including a copy of Spolarium but
with little subsequent gain.
1886 December 8th, in Paris, married Maria de la Paz, a prominent Filipina from the criollo family
of Pardo de Tavera.
1887 February 21st, Rizal completes Noli me Tangere in Berlin where it is published.
1887 September 9th, birth of Juan Luna’s son Andres, nicknamed Luling.
1887 November 29th, unveiling of La Batalla de Lepanto in presence of Queen Regent, JL broke
convention by sitting in area reserved for royalty. Also shown hors concours in Madrid
Exposición General de las Islas Filipinas. At the same exposition Hidalgo won a Gold Medal
for his pessimistic classical allegories La barca de Aqueronte (The Boat of Charon), 1887, and
Laguna estigia (The Styx), 1887.
1887 December 19th, honored by a banquet of Philippine community. Juan Luna was
commissioned by Spanish Overseas Minister to do larger version of España y Filipinas he
had given to Pedro Paterno.
1888 May 1st, Universal Exposition opens in Barcelona, exhibits España y Filipinas and La Batalla
de Lepanto, where the latter awarded a Silver Medal. This year awarded the Medalla de
Isabel la Catholica for outstanding services to painting.
1888 May 30th, JL expresses interest in Japanese art in letter to Rizal.
1888 July, wife has a miscarriage.
1888 September, mother-in-law, who had run down her bank accounts, comes to stay with Luna
and wife at 26 Villa Dupont, 48 Rue Pergolese.
1888 maybe this year painted Un Mois Malheurreux (now missing) marking the beginning of an
interest in painting the urban, down-trodden working class.
1889 February 15th, first issue of La Solaridad.
1889 Spanish Senate, but not the Committee on Art Exhibits, willing to allow La Batalla de
Lepanto to be shown at Universal Exposition in Paris. But Hidalgo’s La Barca de Aqueronte
awarded a Silver Medal and Luna’s Hymen, O Hymnée! (1886) awarded a Bronze Medal.
Large gathering of Filipinos in Paris for the exposition includes Rizal who lamented that
Luna had not yet painted anything anti-Spanish but rejoices that Luna had become
interested in social realism [Pilar-1980, p.123]
1889 September 9th, daughter baptized María de la Paz, nicknamed Bibi, she did not live four
years.
1890 January end, Rizal leaves Paris for Brussels.
1890 February 9th, Luna indicates to Rizal in a letter that he has started work of a ‘large’ painting
with a ‘modern and simple’ subject. ‘It is a Paris street scene where there is an orphanage’,
Monjas Francesas y Su Rebaño [French nuns and their flock]
1890 May 5th, Luna indicates to Rizal in a letter that he is working extra hard for Champs-de-
Mars exhibit including Le Chiffonnier [The Ragpicker] of Société Nationale de Beaux Arts
for which awarded the Grand Prix hors concours. [Indicates in this letter that he had seen
post impressionist exhibition] The SNBA was influenced by Courbet, the members were
affiliated with French Socialist Party, it opposed both the academic conservatives of the
Société des Artistes Français and the Impressionist avant-garde of the Société des Artistes
Indépendants, which had seceded from the former in 1884.
1891 May 13th, Luna’s letter to Rizal indicating socialist sympathies and horror at human cost of
industrial life [see Materials for citation]
1891 Luna gained membership with unjuried submission rights to the Société Nationale des
Beaux Arts for Héroes Anónimos [Unsung Heroes, also called Les Ignorés or Desherados] based
on his own extensive factory studies.
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1891 August, Luna began Peuple et Roi (People and King) on subject of confrontation in August
10th 1830 when revolutionary mobs desecrated the royal tombs at St. Denis. It was
completed in 1892.
1891 This year, Rizal published Il Filibusterismo in Ghent.
1891 Rizal began practising medicine in Hong Kong.
1892 January 30th, Luna sends Rizal 21 drawings for the second edition of Noli me Tangere.
Signed JB for Juan Buwan, Buwan meaning ‘Moon’ in Tagalog. JL’s scheme of 10-15
etchings was also envisaged for Il Filibusterismo but never realized.
1892 completes Parisian Life which shows Juan Luna, José Rizal, and Dr Ariston Bautista gazing
from the background at a Parisian woman. Bautista (discoverer of the paregoric medicine
for cholera) owned the painting, and it was sold by his descendants in circa 2002.
1892 March, daughter Bibi dies.
1892 June, wife goes for a cure at a resort, taking Luling, and where she may have met her lover.
By now Juan Luna had started painting People and Kings which was intended for the Chicago
Exposition in 1893 and a demonstartionj of a major shift by him to social realism [lost in
Wolrd War II].
1892 September 5th Paz and Luling return. Luna threatens Paz with scissors before a witness
sitting for a portrait.
1892 September, a few days later Luna surprises his wife with her lover, to kill whom Luna buys
a pistol.
1892 September 18th, Luna threatens to throw his wife out of a window. Luling is frightened,
falls from his bed, and is ill the next day
1892 September 23rd, after many complicated twists and turns, wife’s family blocks Luna taking
his wife and child away to Spain, who suspecting he will be prevented access to his son by
his wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law, shoots at the door knob to open a locked door
but actually shoots her [she dies October 4th in hospital] and her mother who dies on the
spot, having already injured his brother-in-law Felix.
1892 July, Rizal deported to a form of internal exile in Dapitan, Zamboanga.
1893 February 7th, JL was tried and convicted by the French courts, but was acquitted because
act deemed a crime of passion. Brothers-in-law destroyed all his paintings in their
possession and refused to meet Luna, despite his wish for a reconciliation, who had to pay
the victims' immediate kin one franc each for their loss. [Pilar-1980, p.187-191 gives more
details]
1893 February 12th, moved with son to Madrid where finished some paintings.
1893 July 12th, moved to Bilbao on invitation of local steel industrialist for ten months.
1894 April 27th, Luna left Barcelona with Luling to return to the Philippines after an absence of
seventeen years.
1894 May, arrived in Manila.
1894, June 7th, Miguel Zaragoza publishes an article on Luna in La Illustración Filipina.
Greeted by former teachers Lorenzo Guerrero and Lorenzo Rocha of the School of
Painting, Sculpture and Engraving. There was also a School of Arts and Trades.
1894 Governor General Ramón Blanco sits for Luna portrait
1894 November, Luna writes to Rizal that he might soon be leaving the Philippines again.
1895
1896 early, went to Japan. No evidence to date that he went there with secret mission to seek
Japanese aid for an uprising.
1896 August 29th, Kapitunan declares general uprising from Manila suburb of Balintawak. JL
returns from Japan.
1896 September 16th, arrested with brothers Antonio, by then Chemistry Expert of the Manila
Municipal Laboratory, and José, a doctor, under suspicion of sedition
1896 October 5th, Rizal imprisoned on landing in Barcelona and sent back to Manila.
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1896 December 30th, execution of José Rizal by firing squad.

1897 January, Antonio ordered to be transferred to Madrid. Later as General Antonio Luna, he
was an active participant in the insurgent Katipunan movement.
1897 May 27th, Antonio was pardoned by Alfonso XIII.
1897 June, JL left for Spain to seek a pardon for his brother, Benilliure brothers had arranged
audience with Queen Regent. Antonio was already pardoned, and after a trip to Paris, Juan
Luna went with him to New York. Luna said to have done an equestrian portrait for
Queen Regent in gratitude.
1898 April 20, US’ ultimatum sent to Spain. April 23, Spain declared war.
1898 August 28, United States defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War, the fledgling
Philippine Republic appointed JL as a delegate to the Paris convention.
1898 June 12, Aguinaldo proclaims independence of the Philippines. Antonio appointed Under-
Secretary of War and Brigadier-General.
1898 July, Juan Luna left New York for London.
1898 August 2nd, Juan notified of appointment as Diplomatic Agent of Hong Kong junta.
1898 September, Republic of Philippines set up in Malalos.
1898 Juan Luna met junta in Hong Kong.
1898 December 1st, Treaty of Paris signed. JL named to delegation to go to Washington, D.C. to
help gain recognition of Philippine sovereignty and independence.
1899 February 4, outbreak of hostilities between Republic of Philippines and the USA.
Delegation disperses, Juan Luna goes to Paris.
1899 May 21, JL does last painting in Leitmeritz, Bohemia, of a Philippines’ flag as wedding gift
for daughter of Dr Blumentritt.
1899 June 5th, brother Antonio murdered by other members of Kapitunan. By then the
revolutionary forces had split on clan lines and could offer no resistance to USA with
which some of its leaders chose to collaborate.
1899 December 7th, Juan Luna died of second heart attack in Hong Kong, on way home from
Europe to Philippines.

1902 US’ war on the Philippines virtually at an end. During 1899-1902, 22,000 Philippine soldiers,
up to 500,000 civilians in Luzon and Visayas, 100,000 Muslims in Mindanao killed in war,
137,5005 died in 1902 cholera epidemic. [See Abinales & Amoroso, 2005, 117] Others say
up to 1.4 million Filipinos out of a population of 8-9 million died.
1904 JL works won posthumous Silver Medals at St. Louis World Exposition: Don Miguel de
Legaspi (1885) El pacto de Sangre (1886) Parisian Life (1892), Peuple et Roi (1892). Hidalgo wins
Gold Medal for La Violinista, also for La tragedia del Gobernador Fernando de Bustamente y
Bustillos (oil on canvas, 412 x 338 cms, murder of Governor Bustamente by a mob lead by
Friars in 1719) at same exposition.
1920 JL’s remains exhumed and kept ashes’ urn in house of his son, an architect.
1934 USA promises self-government for the Philippines after ten years.
1941 December 8, Japanese landings on N. Luzon, Batan Island, begin.
1945 March 3, the old cultural center of Manila, Intramuros, almost completely destroyed
[including many works of Juna Luna] falls to US’ forces. About 100,000 civilians, 10% of
Manila’s population, die due to US’ attacks and Japanese resistance and reprisals.
1946 Treaty of Manila recognizes Philippines’ indepedendence.
1953 JL’s remains honored by a state funeral and transferred to niche in crypt chapel of San
Agustín Convent in Intramuros.
1978 JL’s ancestral home at Badoc, Illocos Norte reconstructed as a permanent shrine to his
memory.
Sources: Pilar-1980, Mahajani-1971, Wikipedia, various articles on Philippine history, accessed
February 21, 2013.
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Bibliography of Juan Luna

[Many entries after Pilar, 1980; thanks to Santiago Albano Pilar for directions and to the Lopez
Museum for finding some materials]

Alip, Eufronio M., ‘Juan Luna: a biographical sketch’, The Journal of History, vol. V, nos 3-4,
October 1957.
Apostol, Jose P., ‘The Juan Luna Centennial Commission: A chronicle of its activities’, The
Journal of History, vol. XII, nos 1 & 2, March June 1964.
Art Association of the Philippines, ed., Luna Centennial Catalogue, Manila, 1957
Balayut, Pearlie Rose, Juan Luna in Paris, 1884-1893: a representation and narrative of becoming,
unpublished MA Thesis, University of California, 1997
Benessa, Leonidas V., ‘Juan Luna as a miniaturist’, The Chronicle Magazine, October 27th, 1962
Cruz, E. Aguilar, ‘The other Luna: He was a romantic, not a revolutionary’, date and publication
tbc.
Da Silva, Carlos E., ‘Juan Luna y Novicio: Brief Chronology of his Life and Works’, The Journal of
History, vol. V, nos 3-4, October 1957.
Dacanay, Julian E., ‘In Praise of Luna, International Painter’, Solidarity, vol. VIII, no.6, December
1973.
Flores, Patrick D., ‘Sanguinary’, in Suri Sining: The Art Studies Anthology, Manila: The Art Studies
Foundation, 2011.
Flores, Patrick D., ‘Philippine Colonial Art and the Genealogy of Agency’, publication details
t.b.c.
Flores, Patrick D., ‘ “A Piece of History”: Juan Luna’s Parisian Life and the Production of
Property’, in eds. Clark, John; Peleggi, Maurizio; Sabapathy, T.K; eds., Eye of the Beholder:
Reception, Audience and Practice of Modern Asian Art, Sydney, Wild Peony, Sydney, 2006.
Flores, Patrick D., ‘Luna, Rizal, and revolution’ in Flores, Patrick D., ed., Perspectives on the Vargas
Museum Collection: from Revolution to Republic: the art of Luna, Amorsolo, Edades, Quezon City,
Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines, 1999.
Guillermo, Alice G., ‘ “Social Realism” from Luna to Edades’, in Flores, Patrick D., ed.,
Perspectives on the Vargas Museum Collection: from Revolution to Republic: the art of Luna, Amorsolo,
Edades, Quezon City, Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines, 1999
Guillermo, Alice, ‘Juan Luna and his times’, Journal of the College of Arts and Sciences, Mnaila,
University of the East, 1977.
Luna Entry, Dictionary of Philippine Biography, Quezon City, Filipiniana Publications, 1970, vol.2.
Luna Entry, Encyclopedia of the Philippines, vol.4, 1935.
Luna, Juan, Nota Autobiografíca de Juan Luna in Bantung, José P., Epistolario del Pintor Juan Luna,
Madrid, Publicaciones del Circulo Filipino, 1955.
Ocampo, Ambeth R., Luna’s Moustache, Pasig City, Anvil Publishing, 1997.
Ocampo, Ambeth R., Rizal without the overcoat, Pasig City, Anvil Publishing, 2008 edition
Pilar, Santiago Albano, ‘Juan Luna: the blazing cornerstone’, in Pioneers of Philippine Art: Luna,
Amorsolo, Zobel, Makati City, Ayala Foundation Inc., 2004, [Essays by Pilar, Pars-Perez,
Torres].
Pilar, Santiago Alabano, Unang Pambansang Eksibisyon sa Panggunita kina Juan Luna at Félix
Resurrecíon Hidalgo / First National Juan Luna and Félix Resurreccíon Hidalgo Commemorative
Exhibition, Manila, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, 1988.
Pilar, Santiago Albano, Juan Luna: The Filipino as Painter, Manila, Eugenio López Foundation, Inc,
1980. [includes catalogue of works and bibliography to that date]
Pioneers of Philippine Art: Luna, Amorsolo, Zobel, Makati City, Ayala Foundation Inc., 2004, [Essays
by Pilar, Pars-Perez, Torres]
Pioneers of Philippines Art: Luna, Amorsolo, Zobel, Makati City, Ayala Foundation Inc., 2006, [Essays
by Capastriano-Baker, Sullivan, Soriano, exhibition sent to San Francisco]
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Retana, W. E., Vida y Escritos de Rizal, Madrid, Librería General de Victorino Suárez, 1907.
Reyes, Raquel A.S., Love, Passion, and Patriotism: Sexuality and the Philippine Propaganda Movement,
Singapore, University of Singapore Press & Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2008.
Rizal, José, ‘Juan Luna’, La Illustración Revista Hispano-America, February 28th, 1886; (English
translation in Philippine Magazine, November 1929).
Rizal, José, citations from letters on Luna and Hidalgo, Quotations from Rizal’s Writings, Manila,
Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, vol. X, 1962, 1995, pp.54-55, 76-77.
Rizal, José, Rizal’s Correspondence with fellow reformists (1882-1896), Manila, National Heroes
Commission, 1963 [many letters from and to Luna].
Terra, Jun, Juan Luna Drawings, the Paris Period: from the collection of Dr Eleuterio Pascual, Manila,
privately published by Dr. Pascual, 1998.

Art in the Philippines under the Spanish [see Flores in Material Vol.1 Chapter Two above]

Spanish art of the 19th century [see Flores in Material Vol.1 Chapter Two above]

History of the Philippines [see Flores in Material Vol.1 Chapter Two above]
Abinales, Patricio N.; Amoroso, Donna J., State and Society in the Philippines, Pasig City: Anvil &
Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

Thought and Society

Cannell, Fenella, Power and intimacy in the Christian Philippines, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1999.
Ileto, Reynaldo Clemeña, Pasyon and Revolution, popular movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910,
Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila Press, 1981.
Ileto, Reynaldo Clemeña, Filipinos and their Revolution: event, discourse, and historiography, Quezon City:
Ateneo de Manila Press, 1998.
Mojares, Resil B., Brains of the Nation: Pedro Paterno, T .H. Pardo de Tavera, Isabelo de los Reyes and the
production of modern knowledge, Quezon City, Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2006.
Rafael, Vicente L., The Promise of the Foreign; nationalism and the technics of translation in the Spanish
Philippines, Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.
Rafael, Vicente L., Contracting Colonialism: translation and Chritian conversion in Tagalog society under early
Spanish Rule, Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila Press, 1988.
Schumacher, John N., S.J., The Propaganda Movement 1880-1895, the creation of a Filipino consciousness,
the making of the Revolution, Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila Press, 1997.

Public Collections in Spain which have works by Juan Luna

[Thanks for the courtesy of several Spanish colleagues, especially Juan Guardiola of Casa Asia,
Barcelona]

Museo Biblioteca Victor Balaguer (Barcelona)

Tel. (34)938154202
Fax: (34)938153684
Address: Av. Víctor Balaguer s/n. 08800 Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona)
mperez@victorbalaguer-bmb.org
www.victorbalaguer-bmb.org <http://www.victorbalaguer-bmb.org/>

Museo del Prado (Madrid)

Address: P del Prado s/n. 28014 Madrid
(Administrative Building)
Ruiz de Alarcón, 23. 28014 Madrid
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The Asian Modern © John Clark 2013

Tel. (34)913302800
Fax: (34)913 302 856
museo.nacional@museodelprado.es <mailto:museo.nacional@prado.mcu.es&gt;
http://museoprado.mcu.es <http://museoprado.mcu.es/>

Museo de Antropologia (Madrid)

Address: C/ Alfonso XII, 68, 28014 Madrid
TEL. (34)91 530 64 18 / (34)91 539 59 95
Fax. (34)91 467 70 98
antropologico@mna.mcu.es
http://mnantropologia.mcu.es <http://mnantropologia.mcu.es/>

Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid)

Paseo de Recoletos, 20-22, 28071 MADRID (España)
TEL: (34)91 580 78 00 (Centralita) - (34)91 580 78 23 / 05 (Información)
Fax: (34)91-5168086 acceso@bne.es
http://www.bne.es <http://www.bne.es/>

Palacio Real (Madrid)

Address: Calle de Bailen, Madrid, 28013
Tel. (34)915475350
Fax. (34)915426947
http://www.patrimonionacional.es/preal/preal.htm

Museo Naval (Madrid)

Address: Paseo del Prado, 5. 28071 Madrid
TEL: (34)91 523 87 89
Fax: (34)91 379 50 56
http://www.museonavalmadrid.com
direccion@museonavalmadrid.com

Jardin Botanico (Madrid)

Address: Plaza de Murillo, 2 28014 Madrid
TEL. (34) 91 420 30 17
http://www.rjb.csic.es <http://www.rjb.csic.es/>

Museo de America (Madrid)

Address: Avenida Reyes Católicos, 6, 28040 Madrid
TEL. (34)91 549 26 41 y (34)91 543 94 37
Fax. (34)91 544 67 42
museo@mamerica.mcu.es
http://museodeamerica.mcu.es <http://museodeamerica.mcu.es/>

Museo del Ejercito (Madrid)

Address: C/ Méndez Núñez 1, 28014 Madrid
TEL. (34)915 317 005 - (34)915228977
Fax. (34)915314624
http://www.ejercito.mde.es/ihycm/index-total.html?/ihycm/museo/madrid/index.html

Museo Oriental (Valladolid)

Address: Paseo Filipinos, 7 47007
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Mr. Blas Sierra

TEL. (34)983306800 - (34)983306900
Fax: (34)983397896
http://www.museo-oriental.es/index.asp