Juan Luna's Spoliarium and the Gorechos

I have to admit, this is my first close encounter (i guess) with a national treasure - the Spoliarium of Juan Luna at the National Musuem. 

‎"Luna's Spoliarium with its bloody carcasses of slave gladiators being dragged away from the arena where they had entertained their Roman oppressors with their lives...stripped to satisfy the lewd contempt of their Roman persecutors with their honor..." Rizal was footnoted in his speech that the Spoliarium, "embodied the essense [sic] of our social, moral and political life: humanity in severe ordeal, humanity unredeemed, reason and idealism in open struggle with prejudice, fanaticism and justice..." (Leon Ma. Guerrero, "The First Filipino" 2007)

The Spoliarium was a building or chamber in the colloseum where the dead bodies of gladiators were taken to be stripped of their armor and weapons prior to the disposal of their bodies. The bodies of the noxii gladiators would first be dragged from the arena sometimes by hooks in their heels, to make this chore easier. Their dead bodies were dragged through the Gate of Death called the Porta Libitinensis, This name derives from Libitina who was the goddess of funerals. The corpses of the gladiators were then taken to the Spoliarium.

 Because of its asymmetrical patterns, it provides a comparison between light and darkness, the horror of dragged corpses against the mourning of a lady, the thin almost skeletal bodies of aged men versus muscular soldiers slaughtered in their prime. With everything pointing to the message : the carnage of human rights violation.

  

                                     Juliana Gorricho vda. de Pardo de Tavera (seated at the center with baby Andrés Luna y Pardo de Tavera) with María de la Paz Pardo de Tavera y Gorricho de Luna (standing 2nd from the right) and José Rizal (standing 2nd from the left)

FYI,Juliana Gorricho Pardo de Tavera, the mother of Paz Pardo de Tavera (Juan Luna's wife) , gave the lamp to Jose Rizal where the paper of "Mi Ultimo Adios" was found. Both of them were killed by Juan Luna due to extreme jealousy, a crime of passion they say. Gorricho perhaps is a variation of my surname Gorecho.

In a “crime of passion”, a person commits a crime against a spouse or loved one, or another person, because of anger or heartbreak. When a person becomes very jealous or disappointed, it can produce such strong emotions that he cannot think... rationally and may act on his impulses without thinking about the consequences.the Philippine justice system considers “having acted upon an impulse so powerful as naturally to have produced passion or obfuscation” a circumstance that mitigates criminal liability. Not only that, but Article 247 of the Revised Penal Code expressly provides that if a person catches his spouse in flagrante delicto with another person and kills one or both of them as a consequence, he shall only suffer the penalty of destierro, or exile, and this only to protect him from the vengeance of the relatives of his victims. This provision, which makes the Philippines one of the few jurisdictions which recognize the “crime of passion” defense, is a holdover from the old Spanish Penal Code, which was in force in the Philippines from 1886 to 1930, a revised form of which became the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines.

In one blog i read, the author wrote on one of the myths of the painting : that Juan Luna used the blood of his wife for the  feisty red ink.  The blog said : 

" Unlike other paintings, Spolarium is not just an ordinary painting. For many years, it is surrounded by different mysteries and controversies…controversies done by no other than the ---painter himself. The main colors of the painting are red and black. Colors that express grief, bravery and death. But there is one thing that makes this painting different from any other painting…. the red paint used by Juan Luna, was said to be the blood of his wife ...Many believed that the red paint on Luna’s painting was indeed the blood of his wife…because the red paint shows more emotion than any other color in the painting. But many said it was not… The truth behind the painting will always remain a mystery… Genius people do paintings. It serves as the mirror of the past…it explains the emotions of the painter…at there will always a secret behind the great paintings that our eyes can see….."