Spoliari

by Juan Luna

um Prepared by:
Jellian B.
Alcazaren
 Spoliarium
(background)
• by Juan Luna
• made in Rome year 1884
• won the gold medal in the National Exposition of
Fine arts in Madrid (Exposición Nacional de Bellas
Artes)
• 4.22 x 767.5 cm
• in 1886, it was sold to the Diputación Provincial de
Barcelona for 20,000 pesetas
• Together with other works of the Spanish
Academy, the Spoliarium was on exhibit in
Rome in April 1884.
• It currently hangs in the main gallery at the
first floor of the National Museum of Fine
Arts in Manila, and is the first work of art
that greets visitors upon entry into the
museum.
• The National Museum considers it the largest
painting in the Philippines with dimensions of
• 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
 19th-century illustration of a scene in gladiatorial games. The "Porta
Libitinaria" or "Porta Libitinensis" is a common feature in Roman
amphitheaters. In Roman provinces, amphitheaters were built with this gate
named after the Roman goddess of funeral and burial. These gates were
connected to a Spoliarium.
• Juan Luna’s inspiration for the painting
Spoliarium came
from Numancia (1880), an award-
winning painting by his Spanish teacher,
Alejo Vera (1834–1923). During his
time, it is a common practice for a
student of the arts, to copy the works of
his master as a basis of improvement.
 Numancia Spoliarium
Alejo Vera Estaca, 1881 Juan Luna, 1884
 Spoliarium is Juan Luna’s form of awakening; the
symbolism of the Filipino people’s ignorance, blindness,
mental darkness, and oppression.
Spoliarium was the kind of painting that lent itself to
the patriotic needs of the Filipinos and on which Rizal and
others projected a nationalistic symbolism that helped rouse
the Filipinos to rise up against the political oppression of
their Spanish colonizers.
In Rizal’s words, Spoliarium was a symbol of “our social,
moral, and political life: humanity unredeemed, reason and
aspiration in open fight with prejudice, fanaticism, and
injustice.”
 “WHERE WE SEE
THE APPEARANCE
OF A CHAIN OF
EVENTS, HE SEES
ONE SINGLE