Philippine Women’s University

JOSE ABAD SANTOS MEMORIAL SCHOOL

Taft Avenue, Manila

A Collaborative Work:

The Potency of the Filipino Visual Artists towards the Federation of the Philippines during the
Spanish Regime

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Practical Research: Qualitative Research

By:

Alvarez, Rhea A.

Bathan, Joanna Nichole V.

Del Rosario, Meg Thea S.

Hsieh, Peterson S.

Odtohan, John Michael F.

Submitted to:

Ms. Joyce Ann Calingasan

February 08, 2019

 Philippine Women’s University
JOSE ABAD SANTOS MEMORIAL SCHOOL
Taft Avenue, Manila

A. CHOSEN ERA

Spanish Era

B. TITLE OF THE HISTORICAL RESEARCH

The Potency of the Filipino Visual Artists towards the Federation of the

Philippines during the Spanish Regime

C. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The process on how the Filipinos regained their freedom through bolos, guns and

scriptures during the Spanish colonial period has been on the limelight when visual arts

has also taken a massive part in the awakening of the people. The Philippines had been

the Spanish’s colony for 377 years (from 1521 to 1898) and due to their long-term

dominion, there were some Filipinos who have also finally used their paints and

brushes (started from 19th century) and significantly contributed to the attainment of their

freedom.

The researchers made a study to reckon the contributions of the various Filipino

visual artists in gaining the freedom of the country during the Spanish colonial period.

They aim also to seek the role these visual arts played in the awakening of the Filipino

nationalism at the time when the Filipinos were tagged as indios by the colonizers.

D. SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

 Did the Filipinos grasp the value of understanding the artworks produced by the

visual artists during the revolutionary age of Spanish colonization?

 Why do the Spanish colonizers think that the Filipinos are inferior compared to

them?
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Taft Avenue, Manila

 How did the Filipino visual artists contribute in enlightening the Filipinos to

perceive the state of the Philippines while they were being held captive by the

Spaniards?

 What evoked the Filipinos to use visual arts as instrument towards Filipino

nationhood despite the prohibition to use it exclusively for the welfare of the

Spaniards’ churches?

 Did the Filipino visual artists receive adequate recognition during the revolution

against the Spaniards?

E. INTRODUCTION

 Historical Background

The Philippines, a country bounded in the Southeast Asia, is identified widely

under the three major geographical divisions from the North up to the South: Luzon,

Visayas and Mindanao. It personifies the various face of life and aspects of this

country, rich in culture, heritage, agriculture, and opportunities. Everything went

right, everyone was living in peace and harmony not until it became a subject to

colonization by the expatriates, and these people always leave marks that had been a

key to always remind everyone that they once owned and ruled the land where the

pearl of the orient sea is lying. The history of the Philippines had been loaded by the

Spaniards, who introduced Spanish culture and Roman Catholicism, that generated

beliefs that's neither directly Spanish nor directly Filipino. Philippines was originally

Asian but it lost its identity since then. The Spaniards abused and manipulated the

power reigning in the hands of the Filipinos. They used it to dethrone the loyalty of
 Philippine Women’s University
JOSE ABAD SANTOS MEMORIAL SCHOOL
Taft Avenue, Manila

everyone to the superior one, they wielded their capabilities and turned them to be

their slaves, they detailed out all the rights they had, they detached their freedom and

incarcerated them in the gloomy prison that they can never escaped.

Various forms of today’s visual arts are now widely recognized, from painting,

drawing, sculpture, design, to crafts, photography, film making and architecture. This

artistic discipline is just one of the many avenues to express the artist’s emotions and

interpretation in a figurative manner.

Even back to the Philippines’ Spanish Colonial Era, there were some local

Filipinos who dedicated their art to the attainment of the country’s freedom, and most

of them are tagged as “ilustrado”, meaning enlightened and educated like Juan Luna

y Novicio and Félix Resurrección and Hidalgo y Padilla. Their paintings such as

“Spoliarium” and “Virgenes Christianas Expuestas al Populacho” (Christian Virgins

Exposed to the Public) won the gold and silver medals in the 1884 Madrid Exposition

(Las Exposiciones Nacionales de Bellas Artes). However on Luna’s side he was not

awarded the Medal of Excellence, the top award for the competition, merely because

he was a Filipino. Dr. Jose Rizal’s attention have been caught and gave a speech of

praise to their mastery and nationalism in a gathering of Filipinos in Madrid. He

referred them as the "glorification of genius," inspiring him to write "Noli Me

Tangere", a novel that catalyzed the Philippines' political and social awareness.

Luna's Spoliarium was named after a gloomy underground room of Rome’s

Coliseum. In the basement were injured gladiator, stripped of arms and clothing as

they anticipate the animal carcasses to death. This visual aid advocated democracy
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and respect for human dignity, since it shows the horror of human killings; in which

refers to the abuse of human rights and freedom. Whilst in Hidalgo's “Christian

Virgins”, innocent young women were stripped naked before the auction into slavery

as penalty for belief in Jesus Christ. The painting was considered a visual statement

against colonial exploitation. It also denounces humiliation of human potential.

Luna’s painting with the aid of Pedro Paterno as his success was reflected in the

Spanish daily newspapers like El Liberal and Hidalgo’s ignited the Filipino’s heart

against colonialism and an international liberalism which created the Philippine

Independence Movement.

During the colonialism of the Spaniards, they have influenced and propagated in

various ways like arts. The Spaniards brought a newer form of arts and have taught

the Filipinos new ways like engraving, sculpture, carving and such. During the 19th

century, arts were only exclusive for the activities held by the churches and religous

purposes only. In 1869 the opening of the suez canal (a sea-level waterway in Egypt)

have granted the native indios economic wealth and become the ilustrados (which

means the enlightened and educated). This gave way for them to be the new patron of

arts and brought the secularization in arts during the 19th century. The first ever

known historical painting was a mural at the Palacio Real or Royal palace in

Intramuros entitled, “The Conquest of the Batanes Done” but was destroyed shortly

after the devastating earthquake that occurred. The arts in the Philippines quickly

evolved as the amount of demand by tourists increased to showcase the inhabitants

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and native costumes as well as for decorations and souvenirs from the Philippines.

The 19th century also pave the way in the rise of portraiture.

THE WORKS OF JUAN LUNA

Based on various historical archived, Juan Luna had spent almost eight months

just to perfectly finish his painting, making it to be known as a world-class

masterpiece. The Spoliarium was all about the bloodies bodies of the perpetrators

who were created as slaves, dragged away and was trying to fight back their

oppressors. In relation, the slaves were physically stripped with their clothing in order

to gratify the immoral and devilish attempt against them with these Roman

oppressors. Juan Luna got his inspiration to fabricate this artwork in the Coliseum's

chamber where dead bodies of the gladiators are being disposed. The act of dragging

the pity body of the dead and dying people show how useless and irrelevant they find

one’s life which is a reason that’s why they exploit it repeatedly just for the sake of

entertainment of the Romans. The artwork was precisely colored accordingly

touching the harmonious pattern it created within the shades of the colors, the shapes

and the lines that were demonstrated upon to it. Every aspect added a taste and

brought out the ethnicity and realism which help the viewers feel the emotions more,

wherein people are too vicious to value the essence of life and the impact it leaves to

a lot of people. The colors emphasized the transparency of darkness and despair, with

the elements of this painting, every aspect was shown – the strength and stability, an

impression of serenity and response, despair and darkness. With the bravery that Juan

Luna showed everyone, by fighting against the battle which everyone thought that
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JOSE ABAD SANTOS MEMORIAL SCHOOL
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they can never escaped from it, everyone came back to life full of hope and

advocacies to fight and to show the expatriates that the land wasn't destined for them.

Many Filipino visual artists were brought into the battle, fought using paintings

and the passion for the art. All visual artists were enlightened rightfully that they even

tried their best that they can to showcase who and what a Filipino really was that

time. Some started moving, some started fighting and some started their legacy to

fight the expatriates – a fight that was captivated by Juan Luna’s art.

During Luna's time, it was anti-mind, anti-individual and anti-artist. The

ilustrados were under fire in the 19th century by the Church and the State, as they

would not permit the regulation of their mind or art by the Establishment's system at

the time; and this refusal of regimentation makes the ilustrados so unattractive for the

neo-dogmatics who decree that all art should be at its own discretion. The picture that

they created from the ilustrados was that they're selfish bourgeois who could not

transcend their class; their so-called Propaganda Movement was really but a fight to

gain privileges for their class only; and their message couldn't reach the masses or the

indios as it was so indifferent and distinct from them. Luna was the first ilustrado to

gain recognition on the world stage. His greatest works of line are Spoliarium and

People and Kings, both of which, vibrate with what is called a social consciousness.

In the Spoliarium, there is compassion for the sons of the proletariat: those gladiators

who were sacrificed in order to make Roman holidays. In People and Kings, the

theme is concerned about the masses' uprising against their age-old oppressors.
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JOSE ABAD SANTOS MEMORIAL SCHOOL
Taft Avenue, Manila

During Luna's time in France, he was obsessed with socialism. Activists artists

like him considered art should deal with the oppressed classes of society, portray

ordinary life's everyday events and always seek to expose social evils. This type of art

was known in those days as "Social Realism". While Luna knew that those type of art

would be condemned as irrelevant by social realists, he felt free nonetheless to do

work. He painted - or rather continued to paint - proletarian subjects under that

movement: an unemployed worker, children in the orphanage, a rag-picker, a

pregnant Cockney girl in a London cold shiver. In his search for a subject worthy of

an enormous canvas, he visited one factory after another and was appalled by the

working conditions, and thus spotted the idea of a new descent of Dante into the

inferno modern industry.

When Luna pledged himself to illustrate Noli Me Tangere, he declared his

intention "to move the people" and propagate Rizal's ideas in sketches that would

make them understandable even to the children and illiterate. Moreover, in the same

period of time, he had another project in his mind: a series of picture books with texts

in Spanish and Tagalog, drew by himself. His idea was to "educate people who do not

know how to read." Luna had already been the great and famous artist at the time but

he was willing to work on a simple picture book that would help uplift the illiterate

and poor.
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JOSE ABAD SANTOS MEMORIAL SCHOOL
Taft Avenue, Manila

THE CHRISTIAN VIRGINS EXPOSED TO THE POPULACE BY FELIX

HIDALGO

Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo was born on Binondo, Manila in February 21, 1853

and died on March 13, 1913, in the vicinity of Barcelona, Spain. While his remnants

were taken back to Manila and buried in their family museum at the North Cemetery.

Felix Resurrecion Hidalgo studied in Ateneo De Manila University and University of

Santo Tomas. Hidalgo's parents wanted him to take up law, but he did not finish the

course because he was engrossed in arts. In March 1971, Hidalgo received Bachelor

in Philosophy and enrolled in School of Fine Arts. In 1877, Hidalgo won the second

place in the competition for best cover design for the luxurious version of Fr. Manuel

Blanco's Flora "Plants of the Philippines". In 1897, he departed from Spain as a

pensionado or a student whose expenses are paid by the government while he studies

aboard. Hidalgo's contentious work of art is "The Assassination of Governor

Bustamante" or the portrayal of the killing of Governor Fernando Manuel de

Bustamente by the friars. Although for Fr Fidel Villarroel, Ph.D., a theologian, Felix

Hidalgo was deceived by advisers to fallaciously depict the Spanish preachers as the

murderers of the Governor. Fr. Villaroel concluded that the preachers were not in the

scene when the murder happened. His oil on canvas painting "Las Virgenes Cristianas

Expuestas al Populacho or The Christian Virgins Exposed to the Populace" was

awarded silver medal during the 1884 Exposition in Madrid, Spain. The painting

represents two skimpy clothed women servants being ridiculed by immoral Roman

spectators. The women signifies the Filipinos' dignity stolen by the Roman men.
 Philippine Women’s University
JOSE ABAD SANTOS MEMORIAL SCHOOL
Taft Avenue, Manila

 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study was conducted to perceive the significant change the Filipino visual

artists did contribute on the Federation of the country. The study also promote the

essence of the art, specifically, visual arts on how it awaken the lost sense of

nationalism of the Filipinos during the Spanish colonial era.

This research will also give aid to the modern Filipinos to recalibrate their minds

to see the concealed beauty of different form of arts, specifically, visual arts. This will

allow them to apprehend the impact it created within anyone’s horizon during the

gloomy hegemonizing of the Spaniards, and that Filipinos’ perception have

developed through time and did not stay as indios, as what the Spaniards insist.

Moreover, this will also prove that arts in the Philippines has been present since

then and it is an effective avenue to express an individuals’ self, even through nation

transformation as what Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo have made.

Furthermore, this can also help teachers or professors, to make them think in

different ways, for them to learn to showcase to every student they are educating that

not all arts are just mere arts, but some of them created for progression and

empowerment, for they have the power to influence and spread awareness.

F. SOURCES

 A Guide to Luna and Hidalgo Paintings in the López Memorial Museum. (1979).

Pasay City, Metro Manila: Eugenio López Foundation.

 Pilar, S. A., Baldovino, P. R., & Joaquin, E. A. (1980). Juan Luna: The Filipino as

Painter. Pasay City, Metro Manila: Eugenio López Foundation.

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 Pilar, S. A., Paras-Perez, R., & Torres, E. (2004). Pioneers of Philippine Art:

Luna, Amorsolo, Zobel. Pasay City, Metro Manila: Eugenio López Foundation.

 Unang Pambansang Eksibisyon sa Paggunita kina Juan Luna at Felix

Resurreccion Hidalgo = First National Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo

Commemorative Exhibition. (1988). Manila City: Metropolitan Museum of

Manila.

 What is visual art? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.unboundvisualarts.org

/what-is-visual-art/

 Capistrano-Baker, F. H., Ortigas, A. C., David, M., Espino, L., Ayala Museum.,

Ayala Foundation., & Filipinas Heritage Library. (2006). Pioneers of Philippine

art. Makati City: Ayala Foundation.

 Roces, A. R. (2008). Rage!: Juan Luna/Antonio Luna/Trinidad Pardo de Tavera.

 Hernandez, E. P. (2015, April 15). The Spanish Colonial Tradition in Philippine

Visual Arts. Retrieved from http://ncca.gov.ph/about-ncca-

3/subcommissions/subcommission-on-the-arts-sca/visual-arts/the-spanish-

colonial-tradition-in-philippine-visual-arts/?fbclid=IwAR1ZV8jB9Sx_

lZ9BNO9K4w06KPjKb5eMkr02De4G88WknDlFLk9U6PHA55E

 The Historical Triumph and Social Relevance of Juan Luna's Spoliarium. (2013,

March 15). Retrieved from http://driftwoodjourneys.com/the-historical-triumph-

and-social-relevance-juan-lunas-spoliarium/
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 Torres, E. (2015, February 24). In Focus: The Art of Juan Luna. Retrieved from

http://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/in-focus/the-art-of-juan-luna/