Amanda R. ArevaloBSIT 201P3 December 2012

INTROART

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Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on 15 July 1606 in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic, now known as Netherlands. He was the ninth child born to Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn and Neeltgen Willemsdochter van Zuytbrouck. His family was quite well-to-do. His father was a miller and his mother was a baker's daughter.

He attended Latin school, during his younger years, and was enrolled at the University of Leiden two months before his fourteenth birthday. There, he learned the classics such as grammar, roman mythology, and drawing. He had a greater inclination towards painting and the university bored. Soon, he became an apprentice to a Leiden history painter, Jacob van Swanenburgh, with whom he spent three years.

After a brief but important apprenticeship of six months with the famous painter Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, Rembrandt stayed a few months with Jacob Pinas and then decided to put up his own workshop. In 1624 Rembrandt opened a studio in Leiden with his friend and colleague Jan Lievens. Three years later, in 1627, they began to accept students, among them Gerrit Douwho went on to be a famous painter in that area.

Sometime in 1629, Rembrandt was discovered by the statesman Constantijn Huygens, the father of Christiaan Huygens, a famous Dutch mathematician and physicist, who procured for Rembrandt important commissions from the court of The Hague. As a result of this connection, Prince Frederik Hendrik continued to purchase paintings from Rembrandt until 1646 and his reputation increased steadily.

Rembrandt’s father died in April 1630 and by the end of 1631 Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, which was rapidly expanding as the new business capital of the Netherlands, and began to practice as a professional portraitist for the first time, with great success. He moved in with an art dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburg, and initially stayed with him.

Master Painter of the Golden Age

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Four years later, in 1634, Rembrandt married Hendrick's cousin, Saskia van Uylenburg, at the local church of St. Annaparochie, without the presence of Rembrandt's relatives. That same year, Rembrandt became burgess of Amsterdam and a member of the local guild of painters. He also acquired a number of students, among them Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck.

Saskia came from a good family. Her father had been lawyer and burgemeester (mayor) of Leeuwarden. When Saskia, as the youngest daughter, became an orphan, she lived with an older sister in Het Bildt.

In 1635 Rembrandt and Saskia moved into their own house, renting in fashionable Nieuwe Doelenstraat. In 1639 they moved to a prominent house, now the Rembrandt House Museum, in the Jodenbreestraat in what was becoming the Jewish quarter. The mortgage to finance the 13,000 guilder purchase would be a primary cause for later financial difficulties. Rembrandt should easily have been able to pay the house off with his large income, but it appears his spending always kept pace with his income, and he may have made some unsuccessful investments. It was there that Rembrandt frequently sought his Jewish neighbors to model for his Old Testament scenes.

Although affluent by now affluent, the couple suffered several personal setbacks. Their son Rumbartus died two months after his birth in 1635 and their daughter Cornelia died at just three weeks of age in 1638. In 1640, they had a second daughter, also named Cornelia, who died after living barely over a month. Only their fourth child, Titus, who was born in 1641, survived into adulthood.

Rembrandt’s house in Amsterdam, bought in 1639

and now known as the Rembrandt House Museum

Saskia van Uylenburg

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Saskia died in 1642 soon after Titus's birth, from tuberculosis. Rembrandt's drawings of her on her death bed are among his most moving works.

During Saskia's illness, Geertje Dircx was hired as Titus' caretaker and nurse. She became Rembrandt’s lover and later charge Rembrandt with breach of promise. She was awarded alimony of 200 guilders a year. Rembrandt worked to have her committed for twelve years to an asylum or poorhouse, called a "bridewell", at Gouda, after learning she had pawned jewelry that once belonged to Saskia and that he had given to her.

In the late 1640s Rembrandt began a relationship with the much younger Hendrickje Stoffels, who had initially been his maid. In 1654 they had a daughter, Cornelia, bringing Hendrickje a summons from the Reformed Church to answer the charge that she had committed the acts of a whore with Rembrandt the painter. She admitted this and was banned from receiving communion. Rembrandt was not summoned to appear for the Church council because he was not a member of the Reformed Church. The two were considered legally wed under common law, but Rembrandt had not married Henrickje, so as not to lose access to a trust set up for Titus in Saskia’s will.

Rembrandt lived beyond his means, buying art, including bidding up his own work, prints, often used in his paintings, and rarities, which caused a court arrangement to avoid his bankruptcy in 1656, by selling most of his paintings and large collection of antiquities. The result of the sales in 1657 and 1658 were disappointing.

Rembrandt was forced to sell his house and his printing-press and move to more modest accommodation on the Rozengracht in 1660. The authorities and his creditors were generally accommodating to him, except for the Amsterdam painters' guild, who introduced a new rule that no one in Rembrandt's circumstances could trade as a painter. To get round this and make a living, Hendrickje and Titus set up a business as art-dealers and opened an art gallery in 1660, with Rembrandt as an employee. They

Rembrandt’s son Titus

Geertje Dircx

Hendrickje Stoffels

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sold Rembrandt’s paintings as well as those by other artists and made a modest living doing this.

In 1661 the new business was contracted to complete work for the newly built city hall,

but only after Govert Flinck, the artist previously commissioned, died without beginning to

paint. The resulting work, The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, was rejected and returned. It was around this time that Rembrandt took on his last apprentice, Aert de Gelder.

When Hendrickje died in 1963, Rembrandt continued to operate the gallery. In 1968, his son Titus was married, and as fate would have it, Titus died six months later. Tutus’ wife gave birth to a baby girl, and Rembrandt was named the Godfather. Rembrandt moved in with his daughter-in-law. There, he painted one of his last works, The Prodigal Son.

Rembrandt died soon after the completion of this painting and within a year of his son, on October 4, 1669. He is buried is Amsterdam in an unmarked grave the Westerkerk.

A prolific painter, draftsman, and etcher, Rembrandt is usually regarded as the greatest artist of Holland's "Golden Age." He studied briefly with the influential history painter Pieter Lastman and although he never went abroad, he voraciously surveyed the work of Northern artists who had lived in Italy, like Lastman, the Utrecht painter Gerrit van Honthorst, Anthony van Dyck, and—mostly through prints—Adam Elsheimer and Peter Paul Rubens.

In the Leiden period, Rembrandt also responded strongly to earlier Netherlandish artists such as Lucas van Leyden. However, a crucial aspect of Rembrandt's development was his intense study of people, objects, and their surroundings "from life," as is obvious in paintings like his early self-portraits and the Saint Paul in Prison of 1627. Even by Dutch standards, Rembrandt's preoccupation with direct observation was exceptional and continued throughout his career. Despite the constant evolution of his style, Rembrandt's compelling descriptions of light, space, atmosphere, modeling, texture, and human situations may be traced back even from his late works, such as The Jewish Bride, to the foundations of his Leiden years.

Rembrandt’s Memorial Marker in Westerkerk,

Amsterdam

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Rembrandt was assisted in securing commissions by the Mennonite art dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh, whose cousin Saskia married Rembrandt in 1634. The Mennonites advocated personal interpretation of scripture, which probably influenced Rembrandt's subjective and often moving treatment of biblical subjects. Rembrandt exudes confidence and urbanity in his Self-Portrait of 1640, which was modeled upon courtly portraits by Raphael and Titian.

In the 1640s, Rembrandt's frequently theatrical style of the previous decade gave way to a more contemplative manner, a mature example of which is Aristotle with a Bust of Homer. The change reflects period taste but also personal circumstances, such as Saskia's death in 1642, financial problems, and the artist's controversial relationship with his son's nurse, Geertje Dircks. The great group portrait known as The Night Watch dated 1642 could be said to mark the end of Rembrandt's most successful years.

The term chiaroscuro refers to a strong, self-conscious juxtaposition of light and shade, which results in a stunning visual effect in a work of art. The technique was initially pioneered by Leonardo da Vinci, further developed by Caravaggio, and

finally perfected by Rembrandt. Over the course of his career, Rembrandt consistently deployed chiaroscuro to produce some of the most visually arresting and psychologically evocative paintings in the history of art. By way of this technique for contrasting and manipulating light and shadow, Rembrandt was able to achieve three specific effects which have become trademarks of his style : dramatic intensity, rhythmic visual harmony, and psychological depth.

The use of chiaroscuro to achieve a dramatic intensification of action or atmospheric mood is something that Rembrandt learned from his study of Da Vinci and Caravaggio. By placing the point of greatest illumination on a central, active figure, and simultaneously muting elements of the background, Rembrandt and his Italian predecessors could focus the viewer's attention onto a specific action in a manner similar to the way in which stage-lighting functions in the theater. Furthermore, Rembrandt's calculated manipulation of light and shadow frequently creates atmospheric moods surrounding his figures, thereby imbuing them with a sense of glowing enthusiasm, or a sense of gloom and mystery.

The Night Watch1642

Famous for its large size of 11’10” x 14’4”, effective utilization of chiaroscuro(light and shadow balance), and its

portrayal of motion.

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At the same time, the rhythmic visual harmony of light and shadow that is characteristic of many of Rembrandt's best known subject paintings can create a sense of pattern and a sense of movement. In such paintings as The Nightwatch, Rembrandt's canvas is rippled with contrapuntal rhythms of lighting, giving rise to a visual poetry of deep shadows alternating with rich and luxuriant highlights of color. Here, the viewer is not so much urged to read meaningful content into the dynamic patterns of light and shade, but rather simply to delight in the formal, quasi-musical arrangements of such patterns.

One of his most famous paintings, The Blinding of Samson, was painted in 1636. The story of the painting is taken from the Bible. Samson is a very strong man, and the source of his strength is his hair. He tells this woman that woos him into loving her, and she cuts it off. She runs to her buddies, and they gauge his eyes out. The theatricality of this piece is amazing. The chiaroscuro forces the surrounding picture to be dark, and kind of curtain for the stage which is set up in the center. There, the light bursts through, showing Samson being blinded by a less worthy individual, Philistine. Delilah, the girl who tricked him, is in the back rushing into the cave to watch. Rembrandt is considered a Baroque artist because of the use of chiaroscuro, and the dramatic events portrayed in his work.

Although it is difficult to define one Rembrandt painting as better than another, several of his works have reached immortal fame. Aside from the Night Watch and the Blinding of Samson, here are some of his universally transcending works :

The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicholaes Tulp (1632)

This famous Rembrandt painting depicts a doctor named Tulp demonstrating an autopsy to several men who are gathered around him. The focal point of the painting is the patient. Rembrandt utilized his skill in using colors strategically to draw attention to the body lying on the table and to significant areas. Although the painting depicts the study of death, Rembrandt was careful to add a heightened sense of emotionalism and sensitivity to a scene that could be otherwise cold and unfeeling.

Danae (1647)

Danae is a painting that depicts the character Danae from Greek mythology. Many artists felt attracted to this legend to reproduce the ideal of female beauty, but only Rembrandt preferred to reflect the passion

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felt by a woman on seeing her lover, not the physical beauty of an idealized woman. He gave the figure of Danae a female face and body. The naked figures depicted by Rembrandt are a proof of the sensuality and tenderness presented by this passionate artist. Rembrandt did not produce many nude paintings. It is probable that the Puritan environment around him repressed his natural interests.

The Jewish Bride (1666)

The picture of Isaac and Rebecca (The Jewish Bride) has been the subject of many interpretations. The name The Jewish Bride refers to the long-held view that the picture portrayed the Jewish father of a bride bidding farewell to his daughter. The strength of this picture, the factor responsible for its effect, is seen in the colors themselves. The red color-tone of Rebecca's dress, one example of the effects generally achieved through color, is unusually strongly broken, interspersed with dark brown, almost black, particles, but also partially brightened through the use of yellow, and also of white in some places. The fine, varnished texture, partly opaque in nature, partly shimmering through, reveals brush- and spatula-marks. When seen from a few paces away, this weave of color merges before the observer's gaze, albeit without becoming completely uniform. From an objective point of view, the dark and bright parts could be interpreted as the play of light and shade among the fall of the folds of Rebecca's dress, and as the heaviness and softness of the material, as with velvet, for example, which does not fall smoothly and either shimmers in the light or allows one's gaze to sink somewhat into its surface.

The Return of the Prodigal Son (1669)

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This piece is the most monumental of Rembrandt's paintings and stands above the achievements of all other Baroque artists of the time in its evocation of mood and human tenderness. Rembrandt painted this masterpiece towards the end of his career, but it is obvious that his skill in realism had not faded. Critics of this piece remark that age had only brought Rembrandt a heightened sense of psychological and spiritual insight. The artist's use of expressive lighting and coloring in this painting along with the most simple of settings help the audience to feel the full impact of the event. Wanting to depict a tired and defeated son returning home to his father, Rembrandt compassionately painted the outstretched arms of a man happy to see his son return to him. The painting is symbolic of homecoming and illuminates the human willingness to offer shelter to those who have experienced darkness.

The “underrated genius” myth arose mainly out of the criticism of Rembrandt's art that was expressed after his death by some of his largely younger peers. On the face of it, a significant number of 17th-century writings seem to have portrayed Rembrandt in an unfavorable light. He was said to be a heretic in the field of painting or an artist who, with his use of impasto, a locally applied thick paint, painted with “dung.” Such criticisms should be examined in light of the rise of Classicism imported from France, which had brought about a radical change in taste over the course of Rembrandt's later life. Rembrandt's drastic and uncompromising realism had no place in the universalizing and idealizing approach of Classicism. For example, von Sandrart, writing in 1675, was judging Rembrandt by the new ideology:

Adhering to the practice Rembrandt had adopted, he was prepared to challenge our rules of art, of anatomy, human proportions and perspective, arguing against the use of antique sculptures, against Raphael's and the systematic training of young artists, and against the Academies, so vital to our profession, asserting that one should rely only upon nature and observe no other rules.

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Yet this criticism of Rembrandt was not an indication that his genius was underrated; on the contrary, as Emmens writes:

The criticism leveled against Rembrandt by the writers of the 1670s makes it clear that he was still the towering figure of an older, and now old-fashioned, generation of Dutch painters. That is why the blows of the classicistic attack, which could have been just as well delivered to any other painter of his generation, all fell on his head.

Negative remarks from Rembrandt's critics were in fact almost always counterbalanced by the highest praise. The brilliant artist and writer on art Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711), who met Rembrandt as a young man and was portrayed by him in 1665, confessed in 1707: “I do not want to deny that once I had a special preference for his manner; but at that time I had hardly begun to understand the infallible rules of art.” De Lairesse's laudatory words that follow explain why Rembrandt was admired:

Everything that art and the brush can achieve was possible for him, and he was the greatest painter of the time and is still unsurpassed. For, they say, was there ever a painter who by means of color came as close to nature by his beautiful light, lovely harmony, and unique, unusual thoughts and so forth?

Critics of his paint “The Return of the Prodigal Son” (1662), the most monumental of his painting, remark that age had only brought Rembrandt a heightened sense of psychological and spiritual insight. The artist’s use of expressive lighting and coloring in this painting along with the most simple of settings help the audience to feel the full impact of the event. Wanting to depict a tired and defeated son returning home to his father, Rembrandt compassionately painted the outstretched arms of a man happy to see his son return to him. The painting is symbolic of homecoming and illuminates the human willingness to offer shelter to those who have experienced darkness.

But if criticism of Rembrandt's art became manifest only in the 1670s, how could the sudden decline in Rembrandt's production of paintings between 1643 and 1652 then be explained? It is impossible that, after having painted the Night Watch, Rembrandt arrived at the awareness that he may have overstretched the possibilities of the pictorial language he had developed over the previous two decades. It seems as though he had reached an impasse with his spotlight effects. In the end Rembrandt's crisis was an artistic crisis. This possibility seems to be strengthened by his apparent search for ways out of this cul-de-sac.

The great variation in style in his sparse paintings from the decade after 1642 can be seen as an indication that Rembrandt was searching. A scene with the Holy Family (1645) is one of Rembrandt's most striking efforts to arrive at a different approach to the function of light in his paintings. Here, he introduced three light sources and made abundant use of light reflecting

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on one surface from another. In this painting he also introduced strong color, through the glowing red of Mary's gown. Color, which up to this point he had increasingly sacrificed to light, now returned—usually a strong red—in the centre of some of his images, such as Jacob's Blessing and, later, in the Jewish Bride. Compositions—which were often diagonal in early works by Rembrandt, according to the logic of the concentrated light—were now more frontally constructed.

After creating several highly detailed images, such as The Woman Taken in Adultery (1644) and The Supper at Emmaus (1648), Rembrandt eventually seems to have sought the solution to his artistic “crisis” in a style grafted onto that of the late Titian, a style that was only effective when the painting was seen from a certain distance. Rembrandt's contribution to this Titianesque manner of painting was a deliberate use of impasto that created a light-reflecting surface in the lighter foreground passages of his paintings. His efforts to develop this new approach to painting started about 1645 and would bloom from the early 1650s onward. That period marks the beginning of what is usually called Rembrandt's “late style.”

Over the years, Rembrandt painted 300 paintings, made 300 prints, and about 2,000 drawings. His goal throughout his career was to represent the “greatest and most natural movement”. The following are some of his famous paintings :

YEAR TITLE REMARKS1625 The Stoning of Saint Stephen The first painting by Rembrandt at the age of 191626 The Musical Allegory1628 Self Portrait as a Young Man1631 Andromeda Chained to the Rocks Now in the Mauritshuis, in The Hague. 1632 Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

1633 The Storm on the Sea of Galilee Also known as “Christ in the Storm”. A painting that was in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, prior to being stolen on March 18, 1990.

1635 Belshazzar’s Feast1636 The Blinding of Samson1634 Artemisia Housed in the Museo del Prado of Madrid, Spain.

1635 Belshazzar's Feast From the story of Belshazzar and the writing on the wall in the Old Testament Book of Daniel.

1636 Danae It is a life-sized depiction of the character Danaë from Greek

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mythology1642 The Night Watch Also knows as The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq.1645 The Holy Family

1652 Self PortraitOil on canvas painting that is one of at least 40 self-portraits painted by Rembrandt and was the first he had painted since 1645

1654 Bathsheba at Her Bath Also known as Bathsheba with King David's Letter.

1659Self Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar

A self-portrayal of subtle and somber qualities, a work in which may be seen "the stresses and strains of a life compounded of creative triumphs and personal and financial reverses

1660 Self PortraitPainted when he was 54 years old. It has been noted as a work in which may be seen "the wrinkled brow and the worried expression the troubled condition of his mind".

1661 The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis Originally, the largest painting of Rembrandt, measuring around five by five metres in the shape of a lunette.

1662 The Sampling OfficialsAlso called Syndics of the Drapers' Guild. It has been described as Rembrandt’s "last great collective portrait

1662 The Return of the Prodigal Son

The most monumental of Rembrandt’s paintings and stands above the achievements of all other Baroque artists of the time in its evocation of mood and human tenderness. Rembrandt painted this masterpiece towards the end of his career,

1667 The Jewish Bride

The painting gained its current name in the early 19th century, when an Amsterdam art collector identified the subject as that of a Jewish father bestowing a necklace upon his daughter on her wedding day.

1669 Self Portrait with Two Circles An oil on canvas painting where he is seen at work, holding his palette, brushes, and maulstick.

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Juan Luna y Novicio, born on October 23, 1857, was an Ilocano Filipino painter, sculptor and a political activist of the Philippine Revolution during the late 19th century. He became one of the first recognized Philippine artists.

Born in the town of Badoc, Ilocos Norte in the northern Philippines, Juan Luna was the third among the seven children of Don Joaquin Luna de San Pedro y Posadas and Doña Laureana Novicio y Ancheta. He had four brothers : Mauel, a violin virtuoso; Jose, a physician; Joaquin Damoso, a governor, congressman, and senator; and Antonio, a writer and general of the Philippine Revolution Army. Juan Luna's family was one of the prominent and richest families in their town.

The Greatest Filipino Painter

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In 1861, the Luna family left the north for Manila, believing that in this progressive city their children would receive a good education. Juan Luna was sent to Ateneo Municipal de Manila to study high school and obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree, equivalent to the present-day high school diploma. His parents seemed to have envisioned him entering an ecclesiastical career, however, Juan had shown early interest in painting and drawing, influenced by his brother, Manuel, who, according to Jose Rizal, was a better painter than Juan himself.

In 1869, Luna enrolled at Escuela Nautica de Manila (now Philippine Merchant Marine Academy) where after five years of theoretical courses and practical sailing to Asian ports, obtained the certificate of piloto de altos mares tercer clase (pilot of the high seas third class). With Manuel, he sailed the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean and saw the picturesque views and scenic places in Hongkong, Amoy, Singapore, Batavia, and Colombo. Nevertheless, Luna's passion for the arts continued. Whenever he was anchored in Manila Bay for six months, he took up landscape painting at the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura (Academy of Fine Arts) in Manila where he was influenced and taught how to draw by the Spanish artist Agustin Saez. He also received private lessons from the illustrious painting teacher of Ermita, Manila, Lorenzo Guerrero, who perceiving his potential. Unfortunately, Luna's vigorous brush strokes displeased his teacher at the Academia and this probably was the reason why Luna was discharged from this school. However, Guerrero was impressed by his skill and urged his parents to send him to Spain for further studies.

In the last quarter of 1877, with his brother Manuel, Juan Luna sailed to Europe, where Manuel studied music and Juan painting. Juan entered the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, an art school who produced notable painters such as Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. There, he met and befriended the painter Don Alejo Vera, a professor of the school, and obtained an award for outstanding color, composition and antique studies.

It was in 1878 when his artistic talents was established with the opening of the first art exposition in Madrid which was called the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Demonstration of Beautiful Arts). From then on, Luna became engrossed in painting and produced a collection of paintings that he exhibited in the 1881 Exposition.

Juan Luna was discontented with the style of teaching in school and decided that it would be much better to work with Vera. He apprenticed himself with Alejo Vera and accompanied him to Italy in 1879 for some of his commissions. Luna was exposed to the art of the Renaissance painters. Upon arriving there, Luna visited the ruins of Pompeii and Naples and made some 40 studies of excavated classical sites and objects now mostly in the National Museum of the Philippines.

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At this time he finished his miniature "Autoretrato a Edad 22" (Self portrait at 22), in charcoal, and "Dafnis y Chloe," (Daphnis and Chloe). The latter would soon win him a silver palette from the Centro Artistico Literario de Manila. When Vera went back to Spain, Luna remained behind, staying with the Berdlliure brothers, with whom he was to develop a loyal friendship. He stayed in Rome until spring, 1884, finishing there such pieces as "La Bella Feliz y la Esclava Ciega" (The Happy Beauty and the Blind Slave), "La Muerte de Cleopatra" (The Death of Cleopatra), and the "Portrait of Pedro Paterno."

His "La Muerte de Cleopatra" won for him a silver medal at the Madrid Art Exposition of 1881. His growing reputation as an artist led to a pension scholarship at 600 pesos annually through the Ayuntamiento de Manila. He was granted a four year scholarship, upon the instigation by Francisco de Paula Rodoreda, on the condition that he was to develop a painting which captured the essence of Philippine history which would then become the Ayuntamiento's property.

In 1883 he started painting the "Spoliarium," which won him the first gold medal at the Madrid Art Exposition the following year. A colossal multifigure scene depicting dead gladiators being mourned by their relatives at the basement of the Roman Colosseum, the "Spoliarium" was identified by Jose Rizal as an allusion to the exploitation or the Philippines by Spain.

Luna transferred to Paris in October 1884 but he shuttled back and forth to Madrid as his works, particularly portraits, were now in demand. His presence was also needed by fellow Filipinas who were pushing for reforms in the Philippine colony from the Madrid government.

In 1885, he executed "El pacto de Sangre" (Blood Compact) and "Miguel Lopez de Legaspi," pieces sent to Manila in return for his aforementioned scholarship. He also started "La batalla de Lepanto" (The battle of Lepanto) commissioned by the Spanish Senate upon theinfluence of King Alfonso XII to be hung beside "La Rendicion de Granada" (The Surrender of Granada) by 1878 grand prize winner Francisco Pradilla. By this gesture, the king hoped to compensate Luna who was not given the grand prize for Spoliarium. Although public sentiment felt he deserved the award, it was withheld from him by a biased jury.

In 1886 Luna's Damas "Romanas" (Roman Ladies) won a diploma of honor at the Munich Salon, and in 1887 his "Mestiza en su Tocador" (Mestiza Lady at her Dresser) won a similar award at the Exposicion General de las Filipinas. In November of the same year, the Queen Regent Maria Cristina unveiled both Luna's and Pradilla's paintings at the Madrid Senate, where both are still hanging.

On December 8, 1886, Luna married Maria de la Paz (Chiching) Pardo de Tavera y Gorricho, a sister of his friend Felix and Trinidad Pardo de Tavera. The couple traveled to Venice and

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Rome and settled in Paris. They had one son, whom they named Andrés, and a daughter, Maria de la Paz, nicknamed Bibi, who died in infancy.

In I892, Luna finished "Peuple et Rois" (People and Kings), which he intended to send to the Chicago Universal Exposition of that year. Around that time Luna frequently accused his wife Paz of having an affair with a Monsieur Dussaq. In a fit of jealousy, he killed his wife and mother-in-law and wounded his brother-in-law, Felix, on September 23, 1892. He was arrested and murder charges were filed against him.

Luna was acquitted of charges on February 8, 1893, on grounds of

temporary insanity; the "unwritten law" at the time forgave men for killing unfaithful wives. He was ordered to pay the Pardo de Taveras a sum of one thousand six hundred fifty one francs and eighty three cents, and an additional twenty five francs for postage, in addition to the interest of damages. Five days later, Luna went to Madrid with his brother, Antonio Luna, and his son, Andrés.

In Spain, Luna executed two worker themed paintings: "La Colada" (The Strainer) and a genre scene entitled "Interior de los Talleres del Acero Robert" (Interior of the Robert Steel Foundy). In May 1894, after an odyssey of 17 years, Juan returned to Manila with his son and his brother Antonio.

In the summer of 1896, he traveled to Japan with his student Gaston O'Farrell. Juan did as many as 20 paintings in Japan. He returned to the Philippines during the Philippine Revolution of the Cry of Balintawak. Unfortunately, on September 16, 1896, he and his brother Antonio Luna were arrested by Spanish authorities for being involved with the Katipunan rebel army. Despite his imprisonment, Luna was still able to produce a work of art which he gave to a visiting priest.

The evidence brought against them were just mere news clippings from the La Solidaridad, where Antonio submitted a handful of articles. Juan Luna was pardoned by the Spanish courts on May 27, 1897 and was released from prison. He then traveled back to Spain to work for the pardon of his brother, Antonio. During his homecoming period he painted many portraits such as Gobernador General Ramon Blanco, La Bulaquena, those of his parents, brothers, sisters in-law and nieces. He painted landscapes like "Taal Volcano," "Marikina," and genre scenes like "Tampuhan (Sulking)."

In 1898, he was appointed by the executive board of the Philippine revolutionary government as a member of the Paris delegation which was working for the diplomatic recognition of theRepública Filipina (Philippine Republic). In 1899, upon the signing of

Paz Pardo de Tavera (second from left)

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the Treaty of Paris (1898), Luna was named a member of the delegation to Washington, D.C. to press for the recognition of the Philippine government.

He traveled back to the Philippines in December 1899 upon hearing of the murder of his brother Antonio by the Kawit Battalion in Cabanatuan. On December 7, 1899, Luna suffered a heart attack and died there at the age of 42. His remains were buried in Hong Kong and in 1920 were exhumed and kept in Andrés Luna's house, to be later transferred to a niche at the Crypt of the San Agustin Church in the Philippines, with his monument standing outside the shrine. Five years later, Juan would be reinstated as a world renowned artist and Peuple et Rois, his last major work, was acclaimed the best entry to the Saint Louis World's Fair in the United States. Unfortunately some of his paintings were destroyed by fire in World War II.

Juan Luna was instrumental in placing Philippine art and culture on the world map. He began his formal art training at the Academy of Fine Arts, studying under Filipino artist Lorenzo Guerrero. In 1887 he left for Madrid, Spain, to continue his studies at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. It was during this period that he painted "Dafne y Chloe," which won the Silver Palette Award from the Centro Artistico-Literario de Manila.

Other major awards established Luna's reputation as a master painter both in the Philippines and Europe. These included the gold medal at the National Exposition of Fine Arts Madrid in 1884 for "Spoliarium" and a special gold medal award at the Barcelona Exposition in 1888 for "La Batalla de Lepanto," a work commissioned by the Spanish Senate.

Nurtured in the academic classical canons then prevalent all over the western world, Luna followed the conventional steps in attaining professional success, such as obtaining prizes with colossal Graeco-Roman canvases in the grand Classico-Romantic manner at the prestigious art salons of Europe.

Regarded for work done in the manner of the Spanish and French academies of his time, Luna painted literary and historical scenes, some with an underscore of political commentary.

Juan Luna’s niche at San Agustin Church. Intramuros, Manila

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His allegorical works were inspired with classical balance, and often showed figures in theatrical poses.

His artistic talents was established in 1878 with the opening of the first art exposition in Madrid. From then on, Luna became engrossed in painting and produced a collection of paintings that he exhibited in the 1881 Exposition.

The famous masterpieces of Luna include :

Spoliarium (1883)

A painting entered in the Exposicion General de Bellas Artes in 1884 in Madrid, where it won a gold medal. It currently hangs in the main gallery at the ground floor of the National Museum of the Philippines.

El Pacto de Sangre (1886)

El Pacto de Sangre (The Blood Compact) is an award winning historic painting, depicting the blood compact ceremony between the native chieftain Datu Sikatuna and the Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. It is currently displayed at the top of the grand staircase leading towards the Ceremonial Hall of the Malacañan Palace.

La Batalla de Lepanto (1887)

La Batalla de Lepanto (The Battle of Lepanto), one of the “huge epic canvasses” painted by Juan Luna, is about the Battle of Lepanto of

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October 7, 1571. It features Don Juan of Austria (also known as Don John of Austria) in battle while at the bow of a ship.

La Marquesa de Monte Olivar is one of the earliest works by Juan Luna in the Ayala Museum collection. The painting is a fine example of Luna's early period and demonstrates his careful design and execution. It is painted in the manner of the figures in his 1881 competition pieces. It is possible that Luna painted La Marquesa after winning his silver medal for La muerte de Cleopatra. This early triumph had surely qualified him to undertake what was probably his first portrait commission from the Spanish nobility. To date, little information is available on the identity of the marquesa.

In Philippine art criticism, Luna's paintings are loosely described as "impressionistic." This is a fine example of a Philippine impressionist work. Luna was intrigued by the impressionists and was quick to grasp the essence of their style. He described his own works to compatriot Jose Rizal, another Filipino in Europe, as a "mosaic of pure colors of the rainbow."

Luna applied colors directly from the paint tube, dabbing his applications side by side on the canvas, allowing the viewer's eyes to blend them together to form a unified image. Although the Marquesa's face is achieved through thinly applied layers of paint, her figure was subjected to thicker layers of paint. He chose in this formal work to confine his colors to varying shades of deep blue for the dress, white for the shawl, and pink and red tones for the complexion. To compensate for this somber, formal aura, Luna endowed La Marquesa with movement by rendering her shawl with quick strokes, which expediently evoked the varied textures in the embroidery. The brochadas--vigorous strokes usually made with a stubby brush--captured the essential forms and details in this portrait.

The first time the art world sat up and took notice was when Luna entered his first masterpiece, The Death of Cleopatra, at the 1881 Madrid Exposition of Fine Arts and won second-place silver medal for it. What was more important was that several critics thought his painting far surpassed the Italian and Spanish entries. The Filipino community in Madrid was watching closely the progress of this young painter from then on. Luna was then barely 24, an ex-naval officer and pensionado of the Philippine Colonial Government. He had briefly attended classes at the Academia de San Fernando and was now protege of Alejo Vera, one of the young Filipino so impressed Vera that he took Luna along with him when he went to Rome to undertake some commissions

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Luna’s Spolarium, an immense painting which measure roughly 4 x 7 meters, was an immediate sensation. It won not only the highest possible honor, the first of three Gold Medals, but also enthusiastic notice in the newspaper columns of Madrid, Barcelona, and Paris. Here is some of what the critics said:

"The largest work, the most frightful, the most discussed work of the Exposition."

"It is more than a painting, it is a book, a poem."

"It is something more than the mere mechanism of genius, of the art composition. . . Luna is a thinker."

"The superior qualities of Luna are: as an artist, his ambition to produce great designs; to subdue the multitude with the resources of the highest class in art; serious and rough, not with vile adulations from the pencil nor of color in beautiful lines; as a painter, his energetic style, broad and noble, truthful and on occasion fantastic."

"A giant of art, a kind of Hercules, that enters furiously leveling down all the gods with blows from his club, bringing in a new art, full of ideas and forms, carrying a Spartan soul and the brush of Michelangelo.

Consensus of opinion among critics, painters, and the press of Madrid and Barcelona was that Luna deserved, besides his gold medal, the rare and more prestigious "Prize of Honor" award, which had previously been conferred on Francisco Padilla, the greatest contemporary Spanish historical painter, in the 1878 Madrid Exposition.

The style of the Spoliarium, and other historical paintings with similar message to deliver, draw more from romanticism than from classicism, because of Luna's passionate, impetuous temperament.

The serene grace of classicism, with its stately forms, elegantly fluent lines, cool clarity of light, was not for Luna. What he got from classicism, however, was a sense of dignity and heroic attitudinizing.

The visual rhetoric of the romantics appealed to the emotions in a broad, sweeping, compelling way---and this appealed more to Luna's nature: vigorous brushstrokes, high--lighting---dramatic chiaroscuro, or interplay of light and shadow---nervous, jagged lines, heroic proportions. Such a style can overwhelm the sense and the emotions by its sheer physical magnitude and dynamic presence. And because the painting does not indicate everything with

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explicit clarity, it engages your imagination, sucks it in, making it fill in the areas that are not penetrated by light, and fill out those forms that are deliberately rendered as, to quote a critic of Luna's time, "incomplete indication." It is the kind of painting that lends itself to the patriotic needs and on which Rizal and others projected a nationalistic symbolism; it has the kind of visual rhetoric that helped rouse the Filipino desire to do something about political oppression.

Luna's paintings are generally described as being vigorous and dramatic. With its elements of Romanticism, his style shows the influence of Delacroix, Rembrandt, and Daumier. The following are some of his famous paintings :

YEAR TITLE REMARKS1877 Barrio Al Lado Del Rio Village by the River1877 Vista Un Barrio Con Kapok Barrio Scene with Kapok Trees

1880 La Madrileña (En el Balcon)

The Woman from Madrid (At the Balcony). It depicts a woman holding a umbrella known as the parasol. It is one of paintings that illustrate Luna’s inclination of making women as an artistic theme, showing the artist’s talent as an enthusiastic painter and observer of the fairer sex. It is one of the few existing finished paintings that are regarded by art experts as a “legacy” from Luna.[

1881 La Muerte de Cleopatra The Death of Cleopatra. Second prize winner at the National Exposition of Fine Arts in Madrid, Spain

1882 Las Damas RomanasThe Roman Maidens. An oil on canvas painted by Juan Luna when he was a student at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain.

1884 Spoliarium A painting that garnered the first gold medal at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Spain

1885 El Pacto de Sangre The Blood Compact. Award winning historical painting

1885 OdalisqueIt is one of Luna’s so-called “Academic Salon portraits” that followed the standards of proper proportion and perspective, and realistic depictions with “an air of dignity and allure”.

1886 España y Filipinas

Spain and the Philippines. An allegorical depiction of two women together, one a representation of Spain and the other of the Philippines. The painting, also known as España Guiando a Filipinas ("Spain Leading the Philippines") and is regarded as one of the “enduring pieces of legacy” that the Filipinos inherited from Luna

1887 La Batalla de Lepanto The Battle of Lepanto. Currently at the Senate Hall in Madrid

1887 Una Mestiza

Sometimes referred to as La Mestiza(The Mestiza), La Mestiza en su Tocador (The Mestiza at Her Dressing Table or Mestiza Lady at Her Dresser). It won an award at the Exposicion General de las Filipinas (Philippine General Exposition).

1889 Hymen o Hymenee The painting won a bronze medal during the 1889 Paris

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Exposition Universelle in Paris, France.

1895 La Bulaqueña It is a "serene portrait", of a Filipino woman wearing a Maria Clara gown

1890 Ensueños de Amor Daydreams of Love. A “dreamy” oil on wood painting depicting his wife Maria Paz while sound asleep.

1896 Ecce HomoA sensitive portrayal of Jesus Christ done while Juan Luna and his brother Antonio were imprisoned for 8 months by Spanish authorities.

1892 The Parisian Life

Also known as Interior d'un Cafi literally meaning "Inside aCafé"). The painting presently owned by the Government Service Insurance System is currently exhibited at the National Museum of the Philippines

1892 Peuple at Rois People and Kings

1895 Tampuhan A classic oil on canvas impressionist painting which depicts a Filipino man and a Filipino woman having a lovers' quarrel.

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