This beautiful painting is one of the lesser known works of the Realist Filipino painter of the late 19th century, Juan Luna. The work is entitled Las Damas Romanas, painted by Luna in 1887 in Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. It gives us an idea of how Luna loved to paint scenes from Ancient Rome, given that he had another greater work depicting a Roman scene of the Coliseum entitled Spoliarium. What is most curious about this painting was how it reappeared before 2008 after years of being lost. Apparently a French dealer bought it from an estate sale outside of Paris, unaware of its value. It was auctioned again and today it costs around HK$4,700,000. Filipino paintings have its own unique beauty. Even if Luna began his works in a very European perspective (he was not that of a nationalist compared to his brother, Antonio), Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo paved the way for other Filipino artists to take the brush and start painting scenes from a Filipino point of view. And with that, the best for me was Fernando Amorsolo.
Pop-upView Separately

This beautiful painting is one of the lesser known works of the Realist Filipino painter of the late 19th century, Juan Luna. The work is entitled Las Damas Romanas, painted by Luna in 1887 in Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.

It gives us an idea of how Luna loved to paint scenes from Ancient Rome, given that he had another greater work depicting a Roman scene of the Coliseum entitled Spoliarium.

What is most curious about this painting was how it reappeared before 2008 after years of being lost. Apparently a French dealer bought it from an estate sale outside of Paris, unaware of its value. It was auctioned again and today it costs around HK$4,700,000.

Filipino paintings have its own unique beauty. Even if Luna began his works in a very European perspective (he was not that of a nationalist compared to his brother, Antonio), Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo paved the way for other Filipino artists to take the brush and start painting scenes from a Filipino point of view. And with that, the best for me was Fernando Amorsolo.

107 Notes/ Hide

  1. lesyjade reblogged this from indiohistorian
  2. rizenkai reblogged this from indiohistorian
  3. itz-giological reblogged this from pethics
  4. unpocoderojo reblogged this from pethics and added:
    Ooh, what a coincidence, I was reading something on Luna last night before I stayed awake in bed the entire night. I was...
  5. pethics reblogged this from indiohistorian
  6. farfignugletron reblogged this from indiohistorian
  7. pepperandbutter reblogged this from theurbanhistorian
  8. arewegayyet reblogged this from theurbanhistorian
  9. blitzkrieg013 reblogged this from theurbanhistorian
  10. sunemono reblogged this from theurbanhistorian
  11. thereisnofearinlove reblogged this from theurbanhistorian
  12. yellowfieldsparks reblogged this from theurbanhistorian
  13. mmmerche reblogged this from theurbanhistorian
  14. dirtyloldmannerism reblogged this from theurbanhistorian and added:
    This is the reason why I want to enter school of arts, but sadly ..
  15. dancingwithaghost reblogged this from theurbanhistorian
  16. ninejaallstar reblogged this from pfwooshin
  17. amerl reblogged this from theurbanhistorian
  18. pfwooshin reblogged this from theurbanhistorian

Recent comments

Blog comments powered by Disqus