Introduction:

Espana Y Filipinas is an allegorical painting meaning “Spain and the Philippines”. It is an 1884 oil in wood
canvas and also known as España Guiando a Filipinas or “Spain Leading the Philippines” by Juan Luna.
There are multiple versions of this painting, 6 versions to be exact, highlighting the importance he gave
to the subject and the attention it drew from patrons, with this version having been made for Luna’s
friend, the nationalist intellectual Pedro Paterno. This painting will be analyzed using four planes of art
anlysis: the basic semiotic, iconic, contextual and the evaluative.

Contextual Plane - Espana Y Filipinas

This painting make Filipinos feel having a great relationship to Spain before because this painting
represents a propaganda of certain nineteenth century Filipino intellectuals towards a more equitable
and less exploitative colonial relationship with Spain by Filipino painter, Juan Luna. He was an
accomplished academic painter, and this painting shows his mastery of nineteenth century visual
conventions. The work was painted at the height of Luna's career, on 1884 and is a centerpiece art at
the Luna Hall of the Lopez Memorial Museum. The painter expresses his feelings and thoughts about
what’s happening at that time, the political relationship between Spain and the colonial Philippines and
him being the pro-Spanish, through this, Luna wants to show the strong bond of the two nations and that
the Spain as a mother is guiding the daughter Philippines up to the steps of progress although the
painting receives some criticism by propagandist such as Lopez-Jaena and said the painting lacks one
very important detail, the friar, and it should be the mother Spain whose all-pervasive authority over the
Philippine populace and society they needed to subvert and displace and believed that it was essentially
the friar orders rather than Spanish colonialism who were seen as primarily responsible for spreading
mystifications and for the overall backwardness of the country.

Reference:

https://asj.upd.edu.ph/mediabox/archive/ASJ-36-1-2000/reyes.pdf

https://digital.lib.washington.edu