THE SPOLIARIUM (heading) - Juan Luna, a Filipino educated at the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura in the

Philippines and at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain.

-He was a Filipino painter, sculptor, and political activist of the Philippine Revolution during the late 19th
century. - Spoliarium is a Latin word referring to the basement of the Roman Colosseum

- Luna spent eight months completing the painting with a size of 4.22 meters x 7.675 meters.

- Exposicion de Bellas Artes (Madrid Art Exposition, May 1884) and won First Gold Medal.

- Diputación Provincial de Barcelona (provincial government of Barcelona) with a price of 20,000 pesetas.
(Image of pesetas)

- National Museum of Fine Arts in Manila (image of the museum)

- The painting Spoliarium shows the cruelty, injustices, sufferings, and helplessness experienced by the
gladiators.

- Gladiators are armed combatants who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire
in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals.

- At the center of Luna’s painting are fallen gladiators being dragged by Roman soldiers.

- The left of the painting features audiences who seem to only watch the slaughter of the gladiators.

- On the right, there are people who appear to be mourning family members looking for their loved ones in
the pile of dead bodies.

- It is a representation of how the people of the Philippines suffered during Spanish control.

- the corpses are painted with a ratio of 9:1 which means the bodies of the corpses are drawn nine times.

- Juan Luna used diagonal lines and those lines create a formation of triangular patterns that emphasize
the stability of the painting (insert diagonal lined image)

- Spoliarium becomes a united one with asymmetrical patterns of components.

- The painting symbolizes the despair and the countless deaths of Filipinos during the Spanish reign.