Provenance: : Don Pedro Alejandro Paterno (1857– 1911) and Doña Luisa Piñeyro de Lugo y Merino (Sra. de Paterno, d. 1897)

ABOUT THE WORK

A record of the exhuberant life and times of Juan Luna — and Pedro Paterno. Seated is his great friend and sponsor, Pedro Paterno. Paterno’s Madrid address would be listed in the documents entering Luna’s ‘Spoliarium’ in the Madrid Expo of 1884. He had been financing the artist’s studio in Rome and hosting various fetes. It was filled with the high spirits of the artistic life. One recognizes the otherwise serious Trinidad Hermenegildo “TH” de Tavera in a Mandarin cap, the model and inspiration for one of the characters in Luna’s “Blood Compact”. Seated near him is his brother Felix in a Spanish helmet; in the center, Luna’s wife and muse, Paz Pardo de Tavera. Pedro’s brother, Maximino, is dressed as an Austrian hussar. He brandishes a long sword, while Pedro carries a hunting rifle; props from Luna’s studio from where he produced his historical masterpieces.