Right outside the museum you would see printed works of this famous artist, filling in 2 walls with ... Oh what the heck. Look at the picture! :P
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| My family mesmerizing on some old pictures of Juan Luna in the Juan Luna Museum, Vigan. |
Found inside the Juan Luna Museum are his pictures, palettes, framed copies of his works, family portraits, big wooden palettes that were probably owned by him or his apprentices, and a general's suit, believed to be worn by a generals in his time. I don't know with these museums but it's a bit anticlimatic. Just when you think the articles were personally owned, used, and touched by General Luna, the tour guide would suddenly kill the excitement by saying the words, possibly owned. Ok, so what if it was owned by someone else, what sense would it be putting it in General Luna's Museum, if it wasn't General Luna's? Oh well, I moved past those items with a sunken heart, and moved my way out in search for what were truly his. He was too, a general but he was well known for being an artist.
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| Juan Luna(left) with his contemporary, Jose Rizal (middle). |
He was said to be gifted. Even became better than his Spanish art professor. Too good that he bore spite in him, causing General Luna to be out of the art school. This was cool, since after then, he moved to Europe to study there instead. I wonder what his professor thought during General Luna's golden age as an artist. He probably cried whilst looking at the 400 cm × 700 cm Spolarium. You really can't bring a good man down. Boyaaahh!!!
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| Nice bed huh? |
What's interesting about his works are the details sometimes suggestive of the biases filipinos had gone through under the Spanish realm, or stories about his childhood. It's like Da vinci code of some sort, Philippine version. Funny thing with codes or details is the natural tendency to misread everything and come up with a totally different story.
Say for example this picture right here:
When the tour guide asked us to notice the details: vacant seat, a group of filipino guys staring at a lovely European girl, legs opened, a glass of alcohol, a slim figure, a choker.
I was already forming a story and it goes like this: This group of filipino men were digging this sexy European lady, and were thinking of asking her out. Taking advantage of the fact that she's tipsy. Intoxicated, because she was left by her lover, thus the vacant seat. And with her legs wide apart in a seducing manner, just made these guys all hyped up about her.
Now compare my story to the real message of General Luna:
The European girl symbolizes the Philippines.
Notice that she was positioned in a manner, same as the shape of the Philippines (flipside version). The choker means she felt choked and the small belt around her represents starvation. The vacant seat, meant abandonment of Spanish government. And the group of Filipinos were Juan Luna and his counterparts, who noticed the heart-wrenching situation of the Philippines amidst Spanish regime.
Neat, huh?
2 comments:
Nice blog!
@Mara Paz: Thanks a lot! ^^
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