Spoliarium by Juan Luna

The Spoliarium by Juan Luna is truly an overwhelming type of art. You’d be left in awe at the mere sight of it. It makes you feel proud to be a Filipino and it’s also proof that Filipino’s can do amazing things.

The painting features a glimpse of Roman history centered on the bloody carnage brought by gladiatorial matches. Spoliarium is a Latin word referring to the basement of the Roman Colosseum where the fallen and dying gladiators are dumped and devoid of their worldly possessions. The paintings shows how once the gladiators die, for the entertainment of Rome, they’re just dumped there and the spectators just take their possessions while their loved ones cry and mourn. Juan Luna used this as a form to indiscreetly tell the suffering of the Filipino’s from the Spaniards as they also sort of treat them like the Roman gladiators.

The Formal Elements used in this art are first, lines making up the different images you see in the painting. Second would be the shape which is geometric with the different objects present and also Organic with the shape of the people in the painting plus volume, because of the mass you get from the present figures in the painting. Third is the light and value how it shows some sort of manipulated light. Fourth, the colors he used were kind of mournful, serious and it gives off the tone and emotion of the painting. Lastly would be the visual texture he used giving off a certain illusion texture to make the characters in the painting seem real.

The Principles of Design used in this artwork would be Unity and Variety of the painting, it looks one and whole. Every part seems necessary to make the painting look complete and there are a lot of variations in the images you see. The next would be Balance, it has pictorial balance. The next would be Emphasis on the focal point which is the body being dragged. It also has a rhythm as it gives the viewer a sensory impression of sorrow and loss. Scale and proportion also play a part with the Hierarchical scaling as it gives the viewer an actual scale of a real person in the painting and of course the painting itself is giving of a really big proportion. Lastly 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.

source: http://www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph/nationalmuseumbeta/Collections/Spoliarium.html